{"id":23626,"date":"2019-02-23T18:19:26","date_gmt":"2019-02-24T00:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=23626"},"modified":"2019-02-23T18:35:11","modified_gmt":"2019-02-24T00:35:11","slug":"saturday-atlanta-notebook-clint-bowyer-is-wary-of-too-much-early-speed-at-atlanta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2019\/02\/23\/saturday-atlanta-notebook-clint-bowyer-is-wary-of-too-much-early-speed-at-atlanta\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday Atlanta Notebook: Clint Bowyer is wary of too much early speed at Atlanta"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

HAMPTON, Ga. \u2013 Too much speed?<\/p>\n

After topping the speed chart in Saturday\u2019s practice session for Monster Energy Cup Series<\/a> cars, Clint Bowyer<\/strong><\/a> warned that too much speed at abrasive Atlanta Motor Speedway<\/strong><\/a> might tend to shorten the life of a set of tires.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Clint Bowyer (Photo by Jerry Markland\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cYou need to be good from 15 laps on,\u201d said Bowyer, who ran his fastest circuit of the session in 30.954 seconds (179.104 mph). \u201cBut the problem is, you don\u2019t really get that big a tow off another car like we were at the Vegas test earlier in the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be interesting. I think this is a learning process. Somebody\u2019s going to hit it (on Sunday in the Folds of honor QuikTrip 500, 2 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), and some of these teams are going to drastically miss it. I hope we hit it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bowyer will start third in Sunday\u2019s race, behind Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Aric Almirola and fellow Ford driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr.<\/p>\n

FLU KO\u2019S KEZ IN SATURDAY PRACTICE<\/b><\/p>\n

When Saturday\u2019s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice got under way, Brad Keselowski wasn\u2019t in his customary position behind the wheel of the no. 2 Team Penske Ford.<\/p>\n

With Keselowski suffering from flu-like symptoms, NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Austin Cindric took his place and ran 13 laps in the Deuce and wound up 28th<\/sup> on the speed chart.<\/p>\n

The ailing Keselowski took over for a brief stint in the second half of the session but couldn\u2019t improve on Cindric\u2019s speed.<\/p>\n

OUTSIDE LOOKING IN<\/b><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a difference between the relationship Joe Gibbs Racing had with Furniture Row Racing last year and the one JGR currently maintains with Leavine Family Racing.<\/p>\n

Last year, driver Martin Truex Jr. and crew chief Cole Pearn were included in competition meetings with the Gibbs team. This year, LFR driver Matt DiBenedetto and crew chief Mike Wheeler are not, even though Wheeler was Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin\u2019s crew chief last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a good relationship with them and good communication with them,\u201d DiBenedetto said. \u201cBut we have our own separate competition meeting at our own shop on Tuesdays, where we discuss the communication back and forth and get whatever info we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

That makes DiBenedetto\u2019s performance in the Daytona 500, where he led a race-high 49 laps in a very fast No. 95 LFR Toyota, all the more impressive.<\/p>\n

THEY DIDN\u2019T GO TO THE MATTRESSES<\/b><\/p>\n

When Furniture Row Racing ceased operations after the 2018 season, team owner Barney Visser offered some of his employees opportunities in the furniture business.<\/p>\n

Others found jobs with other race teams, and reigning NASCAR gander Outdoors Truck Series champion Brett Moffitt was one of the beneficiaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe acquired a couple of people from Furniture Row to help with our chassis and body stuff,\u201d said Moffitt, who moved from Hattori Racing Enterprises to GMS Racing this year. \u201cI think that\u2019s going to go a long way as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. \u2013 Too much speed? After topping the speed chart in Saturday\u2019s practice session for Monster Energy Cup Series cars, Clint Bowyer warned that too much speed at abrasive Atlanta Motor Speedway might tend to shorten the life of a set of tires. \u201cYou need to be good […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":19626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[52,557,384,16],"class_list":["post-23626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-atlanta-motor-speedway","tag-clint-bowyer","tag-folds-of-honor-quiktrip-500","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Daytona500-MediaDay-Bowyer-021418.jpg?fit=5184%2C3456&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-694","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23626"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23630,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23626\/revisions\/23630"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}