{"id":24032,"date":"2019-03-09T15:02:26","date_gmt":"2019-03-09T21:02:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=24032"},"modified":"2019-03-10T15:31:13","modified_gmt":"2019-03-10T20:31:13","slug":"saturday-phoenix-notebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/09\/saturday-phoenix-notebook\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday Phoenix Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Can Hendrick overcome the aero issues Jimmie Johnson exposed at Vegas?<\/strong><\/p>\n

AVONDALE, Ariz. \u2013 During the opening laps of last Sunday\u2019s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Jimmie Johnson looked like the driver who has won 83 races and a record-tying seven Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championships.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was running in the top five, suggesting that Johnson and crew chief Kevin Meendering might have a car capable of challenging for the win.<\/p>\n

But as Johnson lost positions, the handling of his Chevy got positively evil and revealed a problem Hendrick has to solve to make its cars consistently competitive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were very aggressive with the set-up of our car,\u201d Johnson said on Friday afternoon<\/a> at ISM Raceway before qualifying 15th for Sunday\u2019s TicketGuardian 500 (3:30 p.m. ET<\/a> on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). \u201cI think once we took consistent air off the top of it, it just started bouncing and went haywire. That thing was bouncing all over the place once I got to like 15th or 20th on the track.\u201d<\/p>\n

The challenge is to find a setup that is fast in clean air without being out of control in the dirty air a car encounters mid-pack. At Las Vegas, Johnson finished 19th, the first car one lap down.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs hard as we try, when the car\u2019s performance is based on over-body downforce, you are never going to change the fact that the leader has better air. I don\u2019t think it matters how big the spoiler is which throws air up higher and then you\u2019ve got these (front drag) ducts that throws it out wider.” <\/p>\n

\u201cThe way we create downforce is tough. It\u2019s tough to have that consistent downforce in traffic. It\u2019s just the way it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

To win a record eighth championship, Johnson and his team will have to master the idiosyncrasies of the new rules package. In the past, the ability to adapt to new challenges has been one of Hendrick\u2019s hallmarks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll race whatever they bring,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI\u2019m here to figure out whatever the rules package is, and I\u2019ve been doing this long enough to have a lot of downforce, no downforce, a lot of power, no power. We have not gotten off to the start that we expected to.”<\/p>\n

\u201cAtlanta (a 24th-place result), was pretty rough for us. Vegas we had a lot more speed in the car, but when I lost track position as the race wore on, my car was pretty evil to drive. We are learning each and every step. We have been off to a good start here in Phoenix. I know it\u2019s way different than that other package, but we\u2019re learning as we go, and we just have to do a better job and get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Joey Logano, driver of the #22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, races during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway on March 9, 2019 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Stacy Revere\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

LOGANO SAYS COMFORT LEVEL WITH NEW RULES IS STILL MILES AWAY<\/strong><\/p>\n

The start of the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season has brought a smorgasbord of new competition configurations matched widely different surfaces at dramatically different tracks.<\/p>\n

Team Penske has gotten the early upper hand with the new rules, with Brad Keselowski winning at Atlanta, Joey Logano following with a victory at Las Vegas and Ryan Blaney snaring the pole position for Sunday\u2019s TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET<\/a> on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

But Logano believes confidence in the new package is still a relatively distant goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably not until we get to the track the second time,\u201d said Logano, who was fastest in Saturday\u2019s final practice with a lap at 137.794 mph. \u201cI think we won\u2019t take off as far off, like even when you go to maybe a Texas for the first time, it won\u2019t be as far off as when we went to Atlanta the first time.”<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when you go to Texas the second time, you\u2019re going to pretty much have a really good idea of what you need, especially after you go through a race once and you realize, \u2018OK, this is most important. I need this in my car.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Joey Logano, driver of the #22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, stands in the area during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway on March 8, 2019 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Matt Sullivan\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

FORDS DOMINATE HAPPY HOUR ON EVE OF FIRST \u201cSHORT-TRACK\u201d RACE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Joey Logano topped Saturday\u2019s final practice at ISM Raceway, running 137.794 mph on his sixth lap in the session. Team Penske teammate and pole winner Ryan Blaney was second fastest at 137.221 mph.<\/p>\n

With nine-time Phoenix winner Kevin Harvick third and Aric Almirola and Brad Keselowski fifth and sixth, respectively, Ford drivers occupied five of the top six positions on the speed chart. Kyle Busch was the only interloper, posting the fourth quickest lap (136.431 mph) in the sessions best Toyota.<\/p>\n

Despite suffering from a lingering cold, Jimmie Johnson was seventh in the fastest Chevrolet.<\/p>\n

Though ISM Raceway is a mile long, drivers routinely refer to it as a short track because of the way their cars drive on the relatively flat configuration. Phoenix is the first race of the season that will feature engines that can generate 750 horsepower, thanks to wider openings in the tapered spacers that limit airflow to the power plants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service   Can Hendrick overcome the aero issues Jimmie Johnson exposed at Vegas? AVONDALE, Ariz. \u2013 During the opening laps of last Sunday\u2019s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Jimmie Johnson looked like the driver who has won 83 races and a record-tying seven Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championships. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":24039,"comment_status":"closed","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":[561,16],"class_list":["post-24032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-ism-raceway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/MENCS_LoganoPrac2_030919.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-6fC","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24032","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=24032"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24040,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24032\/revisions\/24040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}