{"id":25518,"date":"2019-05-04T17:49:02","date_gmt":"2019-05-04T22:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=25518"},"modified":"2019-05-04T18:02:14","modified_gmt":"2019-05-04T23:02:14","slug":"nascar-saturday-dover-notebook-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2019\/05\/04\/nascar-saturday-dover-notebook-3\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Saturday Dover Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n

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

Top speed in practice boosts Jimmie Johnson\u2019s confidence level<\/b><\/p>\n

DOVER, Del. \u2013 Jimmie Johnson was right where he was accustomed to be\u2014at the top of the scoring pylon at Dover International Speedway.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Ally Chevrolet, drives during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Gander RV 400 at Dover International Speedway on May 4, 2019 in Dover, Delaware. (Photo by Chris Trotman\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

OK, it was Saturday afternoon, not Sunday. And it was practice, not the Gander RV 400 (2 p.m. ET Sunday on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the speed in practice\u2014161.863 mph\u2014and his ability to work the outside lane gave the seven-time champion cause for optimism as Sunday\u2019s main event approaches.<\/p>\n

Even though he\u2019s the all-time victory leader with 11 wins at the Monster Mile, Johnson needs to find a positive outlook wherever he can. Johnson’s 11th triumph at Dover was also his most recent in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.<\/p>\n

That was June 4, 2017, and since then, 69 races have passed since Johnson last visited Victory Lane. But that hasn\u2019t diminished his fondness for Dover\u2014or his conviction that he can win.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe I\u2019m a fool, but just every time I come here, I feel like this,\u201d Johnson said after final practice. \u201cThis is just one of those places that an athlete finds a bond with a facility or a venue that they connect with.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care if I have only three wheels on that thing, I still feel like I would have a shot to win. I just love this place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the four Hendrick Motorsports drivers, Johnson was slowest in Friday\u2019s qualifying session. Chase Elliott won the pole, and teammate William Byron will start beside him on the front row. Alex Bowman qualified fifth, with Johnson earning the 12th starting position.<\/p>\n

But as dramatically as track conditions change at Dover, Johnson was encouraged by Saturday\u2019s practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing I did see that was really nice is that the outside lane seemed to have a bit more of an opportunity,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWith lower-downforce packages here you can\u2019t commit to running a lot of wide-open throttle around the outside.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday in practice at least, with all this downforce (thanks to a taller rear spoiler introduced this year), I could climb in the throttle hard and carry a lot of speed off the corners. I saw some other cars out there doing it, too. So maybe this package will open up the groove and get us two or three lanes of great side-by-side racing.\u201d<\/p>\n

MARTIN TRUEX JR. ENCOURAGED BY STRONG FINAL PRACTICE<\/b><\/p>\n

Martin Truex Jr. was particularly happy with his 13th-place qualifying effort on Friday.<\/p>\n

In fact, Truex had the second fastest Toyota in time trials, behind only eighth-place Denny Hamlin. Saturday\u2019s final practice\u2014the only practice of the day, as it turned out, with the opening session canceled because of a wet race track\u2014was a different story.<\/p>\n

Truex was second fastest in the session behind only 11-time Dover winner Jimmie Johnson, and he was pleased with the progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe gained on it some, for sure,\u201d said the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion. \u201cYesterday in qualifying, I was a little disappointed with 13th, to be honest with you. I felt like we could do a better job than that, and we typically qualify better than that here. Again, a whole different rules package and a short practice and we just missed it a little.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s part of the deal here. The field is so close, and you gain or lose a tenth (of a second), and you can go from top-five to 13th. That\u2019s just the way it is. Missed it a little bit yesterday but made some improvements today, and I\u2019m feeling really good about where the car is. It\u2019s really comfortable to drive, and I think there\u2019s some things we can do to make it better. Our speeds and our averages all look pretty good.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere, you get in the race and it\u2019s all about having a car that drives the way you need it to, not so much about how fast it is. As the track goes that direction, it suits my style here, and that\u2019s typically when I\u2019ve been at my best. When the track gets rubbered in, it gets greasy and gets slick. That\u2019s kind of when I\u2019ve been able to do really well here. We\u2019ll see what happens, but feeling good about it right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Top speed in practice boosts Jimmie Johnson\u2019s confidence level DOVER, Del. \u2013 Jimmie Johnson was right where he was accustomed to be\u2014at the top of the scoring pylon at Dover International Speedway. OK, it was Saturday afternoon, not Sunday. And it was practice, not the Gander RV 400 (2 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":25520,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[222,16,181],"class_list":["post-25518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-dover-international-speedway","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-xfinity-series"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-6DA","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Dover_MENCS_JJohnson-Practice_050419.jpg?fit=4152%2C2768&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25518","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=25518"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25521,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25518\/revisions\/25521"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}