Posted on by Reid Spencer

HAMPTON, Ga. – To hear Christopher Bell describe his race in Victory Lane, you’d never know that he had just won it.

“I felt pretty sloppy there as a driver sometimes,” Bell said after leading 142 of 163 laps in winning Saturday’s Rinnai 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “Running the yellow line (at the bottom of the track) is so hard.

“I don’t know, I would just struggle on the longer runs there.”

RELATED: Xfinity race results | Full Atlanta schedule

Struggling, of course, is a relative thing. After the only caution for a racing incident slowed the field on Lap 156, Bell held off Cole Custer by .191 seconds in a three-lap dash for the finish. The victory — including a sweep of all three stages — was Bell’s first of the season, his first at Atlanta and the ninth of his career.

Bell also baptized the new Toyota Supra with its first win in NASCAR competition, as Toyota picked up its 150th victory in the Xfinity Series.

After rain washed out qualifying, Bell started third in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota according to 2018 owner points, grabbed the lead on the first lap and held it for the entire first stage. That set the tone for the entire race. The 24-year-old Oklahoma driver surrendered the top spot only under caution on pit road or during the one cycle of green-flag pit stops late in the race.

Custer surged from fifth to second after the final restart on Lap 161, but Bell managed to keep the No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford behind him.

“He took the air away from us (on the final lap),” Custer said. “I thought I was going to have a run going down the backstretch. We just have to build on that — we’ll be a threat all year.”

In fact, with Justin Allgaier finishing third, the Xfinity Series returned to form after a scramble at Daytona that saw Michael Annett pick up his first victory. Bell, Custer and Allgaier are three drivers expected to contend for the series championship.

Starting third in the preferred bottom lane, Allgaier thought he had a chance for the win, but Custer slipped past him on the restart lap. 

“We were just a little tight today,” Allgaier said. “All day long we didn’t get the balance exactly where we wanted it, but the guys did a fantastic job. We had great pit stops. That last run, we got the inside, and I thought we were going to be OK. 

“I chose to go to the middle, thinking I could get the run on the back and let Cole by me, but still, a great race. Hats off to C. Bell. He had the best car all day.”

Brandon Jones overcame a pit road penalty to finish fourth, with reigning series champion Tyler Reddick coming home fifth and Jeffrey Earnhardt sixth, a career best. Earnhardt restarted next to Bell on Lap 161, but the slick top lane was at a clear disadvantage.

“It was really hard on the outside lane,” Earnhardt said. “But the Toyota Supra was super-fast today. They (JGR) put me in a heck of a car. We came up short on the win. We showed we belong here, and we’re going to run up front the rest of the races.”

Reddick had cut Bell’s two-second lead to less than .300 seconds before the final caution.

“It made for a good finish, that’s for sure,” Bell said. “Man, the 2 (Reddick) and the 00 (Custer) really both of them were pretty good on the long runs. Our Supra was really good.

“Very thankful there to get the yellow and put some tires on it, but it would have been fun to race it out with Tyler there.”

The Xfinity Series’ next race is the Boyd Gaming 300, scheduled next Saturday (4 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Posted on by RJ Kraft

Stewart-Haas Racing’s Aric Almirola will start from the pole position for Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway (2 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) but does that merit a spot in your lineup? We’ve dissected the numbers to offer a suggested lineup worthy of your Fantasy Live consideration as you make roster decisions.

PLAY NOW: Set your lineup | How the game works | Tips to set your lineup

Remember that the garage locks at the end of Stage 2. Once the final stage starts, your roster is locked in.

RJ Kraft’s Fantasy Live lineup for race-day at Atlanta:
1. Clint Bowyer
2. Aric Almirola
3. Kurt Busch
4. Kyle Larson
5. Martin Truex Jr.
Garage: Kevin Harvick

Cars to the rear: Kyle Busch (backup car)
Competition caution: Lap 35

RELATED: Las Vegas odds for Atlanta | 10-lap averages from Atlanta

By and large, I’m flipping my original lineup on its head for Sunday. I’m sticking with Kurt Busch and Truex but changing nearly everything else. The 2004 champ’s solid history here — three Cup wins and, more recently, seven top 10s in his last nine starts — and Truex was third on the 10-lap board in final practice and even with a new rules package, I trust in him on 1.5-mile range tracks.

Bowyer topped both practices and finished third here last year. He’s also going to line up third so I’m hoping to get some stage points there. For another slot, I’ll stick with SHR and select his teammate Almirola. The driver of the No. 10 Ford will start on the pole and always seemed to grab stage points when he qualified well last year. My last active spot came down to Larson and another SHR driver — Daniel Suarez. I’m giving the spot to Larson based on his better 10-lap average in final practice — Larson was second, while Suarez was 18th and more than 1.5 seconds behind the Ganassi driver in that category. An added factor for me is that Atlanta tends to favor veteran drivers with a tougher surface that calls for managing tire wear in a way that experience tends to lend itself to.

For the garage, I went back and fourth between Kyle Busch and Harvick. Busch has the much better practice times and 10-lap average in final practice as he topped the board there. However, he has to go to a backup car and the rear of the field after a wreck in final practice. Harvick has been so strong at this track since coming to SHR that it’s hard to look away from that. He had power steering issues in Friday’s practice and qualifying sessions, but those seem to be corrected based on his 10-lap average time that ranked fourth in final practice. Before the final practice incident for Busch, I was going to keep Harvick out, but now I am giving a slight nod to the 2014 champ. That said, I plan on being pretty judicious with “Happy.” If Harvick is not in the top six at the end of Stage 2, if I have no issues elsewhere in my lineup, I will leave him out. As for Kyle Busch, the 2015 champion will factor into my bonus picks.

When it comes to stage winners, I like Bowyer to take Stage 1 with Harvick in Stage 2 and Kyle Busch to bring it home as the winner. Since I came close to plugging him in my lineup, I’d like to try and get some points out of him if his backup car is as strong as his primary was in practice.

Each week in this space, we’ll also highlight two Props Challenge items for players.

MORE: Play the Props Challenge today

1. Chevy had five drivers in the top 10 at Daytona last week. Over/under of 4.5 this week? I am taking the under here. Only three Chevrolets qualified in the top 10 and only four in the top 15 so the manufacturer seems a little off on speed at Atlanta. Plus, in the last two Atlanta races, Chevrolet has had four drivers in the top 10 in 2017 and just two in last year’s race. With how the Fords and Toyota have placed on the speed charts, I’m inclined to think those camps will take up two-thirds of the top 10 — and all you need are six non-Chevrolets in the top 10 and the under is covered.

2. Last two winners at Atlanta have started inside the top five. Will that trend continue? I’m going no on this one for a number of reasons. First, Kyle Larson, Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch (even in a backup) and Kevin Harvick — as off as he looked on Friday — are among the cars outside the top five and I feel pretty good about the notion that one of them ends up in Victory Lane. Factoring in that outside of Denny Hamlin (starting fourth), the rest of top five in the lineup (Almirola, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Bowyer and Suarez) have just one win at 1.5-mile range track (Bowyer in 2012 at Charlotte), Hamlin has only one Atlanta win (in 2012) and I like the odds in favor of drivers outside the top five.

Posted on by Staff Report

Clint Bowyer powered to the fastest lap Saturday to cap an eventful final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Bowyer drove through a persistent mist to set the benchmark with a 179.104 mph lap in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 14 Ford. Bowyer, set to start third in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 (2 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM), was also fastest in Friday’s opening practice on the 1.54-mile track.

“I don’t know that it means a whole lot,” Bowyer said. “You have speed in your race car but I don’t know if that will matter. I don’t think there is anybody that ran more than 20 laps. We are a 50-lap run here. That is a big difference. Lap 20 on is where we start separating the men from the boys. Hopefully we will be good and strong at those laps.”

RELATED: Final practice results | Full schedule for Atlanta

Kyle Busch posted the second-fastest lap at 178.873 mph early in practice, but crashed into the Turn 2 retaining wall at the nine-minute mark. The rear-end damage forced his Joe Gibbs Racing crew to prepare a reserve No. 18 Toyota ahead of Sunday’s 500-miler.

MORE: Best 10-lap averages | Kyle Busch crashes

Austin Dillon notched the third-fastest lap (178.712 mph) in the Richard Childress Racing No. 3 Chevrolet. Michael McDowell (178.672) and Corey LaJoie (178.436) completed the leaderboard’s top five, just ahead of three-time Atlanta winner Kurt Busch (178.018) in sixth.

Xfinity Series regular Austin Cindric spent time in the Team Penske No. 2 Ford as a fill-in for Brad Keselowski, who sat out the early part of final practice with what the team described as flu-like symptoms. The No. 2 Ford wound up 28th on the final practice leaderboard.

MORE: Cindric subs for ailing Keselowski

Erik Jones logged the 24th-fastest speed, but his track time was curtailed as he brought the No. 20 Toyota to the garage midway through the 80-minute session with power-steering trouble.

Defending race winner Kevin Harvick, who fought through steering issues during Friday’s on-track activity, clocked the 21st-best lap in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Ford.

Posted on by Staff Report

Kyle Busch crashed in Saturday’s final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice, forcing his Joe Gibbs Racing team to unload a reserve No. 18 Toyota at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Kyle Busch practice wreck at Atlanta
Tyler Strong | NASCAR Digital Media

RELATED: Full schedule for Atlanta

Busch, a two-time Atlanta winner, had just posted the second-fastest lap of the 80-minute session when he spun in Turn 2 at the 1.54-mile track. Busch’s No. 18 made contact with the outside retaining wall, damaging the rear section of his primary car.

“I think it’s toast,” Busch radioed to his crew after skidding to a halt on the backstretch apron, then driving the car back to the garage.

“Just got loose,” Busch said after final practice. “We were trying to run a run and the car was pretty good with fire off there. We ran some really good times and then just kept getting a little bit looser, a little bit looser. I tried to go back to the bottom and run the bottom to see how slow I had to be to go around the bottom and just snapped.”

PHOTOS: See Sunday’s field 

Busch was scheduled to start sixth in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 (2 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). With the team resorting to the backup No. 18, Busch will drop to the rear of the field before the start.

“I think it’ll be fine,” Busch said. “Obviously, I think the biggest unknown is just the backup car, but I trust in Adam (Stevens, crew chief) and my guys and everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing that we’ll be fine and it’ll just have to be a managed race – a differently managed race than what we expected from yesterday’s qualifying.”

Sunday’s race will mark the 500th career Monster Energy Series start for the 2015 champion.

Posted on by Staff Report

Xfinity Series regular Austin Cindric will be on standby for the Team Penske No. 2 Ford team in Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway as Brad Keselowski tries to recover from flu-like symptoms.

Cindric, 20, split time with Keselowski in the No. 2 Ford during Saturday’s final practice on the 1.54-mile track. With Cindric making his first appearance in NASCAR’s top division, Team Penske crew members applied yellow tape to the car’s rear bumper as a makeshift rookie stripe.

RELATED: See every car in Sunday’s field

The organization said earlier Saturday that Keselowski still is scheduled to start Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 (2 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the second race of the Monster Energy Series season. But Cindric said after finishing 10th in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race that he would be ready Sunday if called upon.

“It’s such a wild card because no one knows what to expect,” Cindric told FOX Sports. “I’ve definitely learned a lot today in my 20 minutes’ worth of laps, but I think I can pull a lot from my truck racing experience to help me out if need be. But from everything I understand, Brad’s in good condition. Brad’s definitely a tough guy, so I don’t see him backing out and letting me do this one.”

Keselowski earned the 19th starting spot in Friday’s Busch Pole qualifying.

Cindric finished eighth in the Xfinity season standings in 2018. He has three NASCAR national series starts at Atlanta with a best finish of seventh in the Xfinity Series last season.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

HAMPTON, Ga. – As the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series gets into full swing, the concept of a ‘Big Three’ might be dead on arrival.

At least that’s what Martin Truex Jr. thinks.

Last season, Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick won eight races each, and Truex added four as the so-called Big Three grabbed the trophies in 20 of the 36 points races in NASCAR’s premier series.

All three drivers qualified for the Championship 4 race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, only to lose the title to late bloomer Joey Logano.

With a new higher-downforce, lower-horsepower competition package in place for the 2019 season, however, Truex doubts that any three drivers will combine to win more than half the races.

RELATED: Starting lineup for Sunday’s race | Full schedule for Atlanta

“Unfortunately, yeah, I believe that’s correct,” Truex said with a wry smile during a media session on Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, host venue for Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 (2 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“Again, it’s all speculation. I don’t know until we get going. You’re still going to have teams figure it out better than others. Whether we’re one of those, we’ll have to wait and see.”

Not only are the new rules designed to keep the cars closer together, but Truex expects the package to accentuate the unique characteristics that distinguish one track from the next.

Consequently, what works at one intermediate speedway—Las Vegas, for example—may not be an optimal solution at Texas or Chicagoland.

“Oh, yeah, it’ll be different everywhere,” predicted Truex, who won eight races during his 2017 championship season. “The package is going to look a little different depending on the track we’re at and what we’re able to do with it.

“Here (at Atlanta) it’s so worn out and so rough and bumpy, it’s hard to… in order to get through the corners, you kind have to have some air on your car. Next week (at Las Vegas), we’ll definitely be drafting—at least that’s what everyone is kind of thinking.”

The first test of the new package comes on Sunday, and to Truex, it’s still a vast unknown.

“Nobody has any idea about anything,” he said. “I think pretty much all teams had more questions going into practice (Friday) than any time I can remember in the sport, maybe back to when we first ran the Car of Tomorrow (in 2007).

“It was just there were so many questions and so many different ways you can do this. There’s so many different options to set the car up aero-wise and different things. A lot of questions and only an hour and 20 minutes of practice, so still a lot to learn.

“We go to Phoenix (a one-mile flat track on March 10), and it’s going to be totally different again with more horsepower, so, yeah, we’re going to learn a lot through the first five races with the different race tracks and then try to figure it out and go from there.”

Posted on by

HAMPTON, Ga. – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. heard some less-than-flattering, in-car comments from competitors following last weekend’s season opener at Daytona International Speedway.

He’ll remember them going forward.

“There’s a lot of people mad or saying things on the radio that we saw this week, which I don’t appreciate,” Stenhouse said Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “But I feel like I do everything that I have to do to make sure our car stays in the front and we led the most laps of any of the other Ford drivers and they all want to run their mouths …

“I definitely file it away. They don’t get any help from here on out. I think everybody was a little bit frustrated.”

Joey Logano was one of the most prominent voices on the radio regarding Stenhouse last weekend, radioing to his crew, “Ricky Stankhouse. God. He sucks. He’s awful,” at one point during the race.

Stenhouse’s crew chief Brian Pattie relayed Logano’s comments during the race to Stenhouse, who fired back at the No. 22 on his own radio: “Yeah the 22’s an idiot. We know he’s out for himself. I don’t care to help the 22 ever,” he said.

Logano acknowledged his initial comment, as well as Stenhouse’s response on Friday.

“We all say things on the radio, right?” the Team Penske driver said. “We’re in the heat of the moment and sometimes you just press the button and it makes you feel better. That was right after a moment that we about crashed.

“When I say ‘about crashed,’ if I didn’t lift, the whole field was going to crash because of a move that was happening. That made me pretty mad because I lost 10 spots after that. So, that was my frustration, rightfully so.”

MORE: Logano, McDowell exchange words

The No. 17 driver was pulled into the spotlight unfavorably again later on after a Lap 195 crash in the Daytona 500. Stenhouse shot through Kevin Harvick and Kyle Larson, who blocked the No. 17, causing a multi-car pile-up – and some negative comments on social media toward Stenhouse.

But the No. 4 wheelman didn’t have qualms with Stenhouse when asked ahead of Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

“I don’t really feel like Stenhouse did anything wrong,” Harvick said. “I feel like the 42 pulled a block that was like three seconds too late and smacked him down into the side. I don’t feel like he really did anything wrong in shooting that gap that was wide open. It was just a really, really bad block by the 42. That is why you should always watch before you complain and make a fool out of yourself, like I have done in the past. Initially that is what I would have done.

“I would have been mad at him but then you go watch the video and that wasn’t the case.”

With “100 things going on in your race car,” the cockpit of the race car can breed heated responses, according to Logano – and drivers don’t typically know the entire background of a situation.

“It’s part of it sometimes,” he said.

“You take things out of context a lot, especially in the heat of the moment when you’ve got 100 other things going on in your race car. …You don’t know until after the race, so, I don’t really hold much weight to a lot of that stuff because until you really know the whole story …

“You’re going to be on both ends of these things every now and again. You just go with the flow. Gotta be you. Be the best you you can be.”

Tune in Sunday for the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta (2 p.m. ET, FOX).

MORE: Full race lineup

Posted on by Holly Cain

Kevin Harvick arrived at Atlanta Motor Speedway for Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 (2 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with a bullseye on his back. Last year he won both the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race and the Xfinity race the day before.

It is the venue where he so dramatically won his very first NASCAR Monster Energy NASCAR Cup race – driving Dale Earnhardt’s car only three weeks after being summoned into the Cup ranks after the seven-time champion’s death in the 2001 Daytona 500.

MORE: Memorable Atlanta moments

Atlanta Motor Speedway has held a positive mark in Harvick’s career. Last year his victory sparked a three-race winning streak that started the best statistical year of his career – a record eight wins in all. He led a dominating 181 of the 325 laps at Atlanta and added another 214 out front at Las Vegas the next week – two huge competitive statements. He’s led 915 laps in the last five Atlanta races alone – finishing top-10 in four of them.

And yet for all that background and all that success, Harvick insisted Friday after a brief practice session, he truly doesn’t know what to expect this weekend when the series debuts new technical regulations.

The cars will be fitted with tapered spacers in the engines designed to restrict airflow and lower the horsepower by about 200 HP. The package is similar to what received glowing reviews after its use in the 2018 All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway and will be used at all tracks moving forward.

RELATED: Atlanta 101 — rules, tires, more

Harvick could only smile and surmise when asked – repeatedly – about his prospects and expectations for this weekend.

“We really don’t know either,’’ he said of the drivers’ expectations. “That is the question. We don’t have that answer. I can tell you that it will be drastically different than what we have done before. We have not raced this package. That is the bottom line. You don’t have any idea of what you need because we haven’t had all the cars on the track and last week was a great example for a lot of you who wrote stories about the racing and the way that the Clash and qualifying races were and the drastic difference when we dropped the green flag at the Daytona 500 with all the cars on the race track.

“Other than being drastically different, I would hate to speculate on what the direction of it is going to be and what we are going to do because we don’t know.

“That is good for everyone watching. Once the engineers all wrap their arms around what they need it becomes more of a system and you start to build the notebook and things that go with that to start to evolve the program and what you do and what you work on.”

Harvick shows up at Atlanta eager to give the season a sort of re-boot. His No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford finished 26th in the season-opening Daytona 500 – a victim of a multi-car accident six laps shy of the scheduled checkered flag – 13 laps shy of the ultimate checkered flag, the extra laps necessary for late race incidents.

All that is in the rearview mirror now as NASCAR introduces one of the most significant competitive changes in years. The good news is teams and drivers seemed encouraged during offseason testing of the new package.

“Based on the lap times and everything that we saw today, handling is still going to be a pretty big part of the weekend and things that you need to put in your car,’’ Harvick explained. “I think it is more along the lines of that truck mentality. You can fall into the hole from the speed trap or you can work on your car and make it handle well and have decent speed.

“It is definitely a balance to see where all of that falls at all the different styles of race tracks.”

It’s going to not only require a different way to drive, perhaps, but new race strategies from the pit box. And of course, ultimately this new element of competition will become about which team, which manufacturer, which driver figures it all out the best. And quickest.

This week will be the first test. And the drivers are ready.

“Right now we don’t have anything to evolve because we don’t have any answers,’’ Harvick said. “We have more questions with zero answers actually.”

Harvick qualified 18th for Sunday’s race.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

HAMPTON, Ga. – Clint Bowyer was on the doorstep of securing his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series pole position since 2007, but teammate Aric Almirola and fellow Ford driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had the last say.

Almirola powered his No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford to the fastest lap of the day in the final round of Friday’s knockout qualifying session at Atlanta Motor Speedway, claiming the second Busch Pole Award of his career — and his first since winning the pole for the Coca-Cola 600 in 2012.

RELATED: Starting lineup

The 34-year-old driver from Tampa, Fla., will take the green flag from the top starting spot in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 (2 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Almirola also earns the distinction as the first driver to put a Mustang on the pole for a Cup race, with Ford having introduced that model into the series this year. He’s also the first pole winner under NASCAR’s new higher-downforce, lower-horsepower 2019 Cup competition package.

“We knew our car had a lot of raw speed in it,” said Almirola, who covered the 1.54-mile distance in 30.55 seconds (181.473 mph) to beat Stenhouse (180.428 mph) for the top starting spot by .177 seconds. “Through the rounds, the adjustments that (crew chief) Johnny (Klausmeier) was making kept making our car a little bit better.

“Then that final round just was really good execution by the whole team … Honestly, the car that the guys brought, we were good right off the truck. We were second in practice and we carried that speed through qualifying. In that final round, we knew that a second lap was going to be faster than the first.

“That first lap, we kind of decided to throw that lap away and work on building the speed up. That second lap, I just really executed and hit all my marks perfectly and was able to be good enough and had a really fast lap to get the pole, which is really cool because I haven’t done it in like seven years. That was pretty neat.”

PHOTOS: See every car in Sunday’s field

After leading the first two rounds, Bowyer was first to make an attempt in the money round, beating Austin Dillon in a drag race off pit road to start his final laps. Bowyer (180.410 mph) held the top starting spot until Almirola and Stenhouse surpassed him late in the session.

“I thought Austin would take off and go, and he was kind of lagging back,” Bowyer said of the start to the final round. “I knew it was a momentum deal, and I had to have as much as I could, and it still wasn’t enough.

“I do believe that we were the fastest car all day long, and they were going to have to do something and they formulated a good plan to beat us.”

Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin qualified fourth at 180.328 mph in the fastest Toyota, followed by the Stewart-Haas entry of Daniel Suarez (180.216 mph). Kyle Busch was sixth, ahead of the Chip Ganassi racing Chevrolets of Kyle Larson and Kurt Busch in seventh and eighth, respectively.

Martin Truex Jr., Dillon, Jimmie Johnson and Michael McDowell completed the top 12.

Defending race winner Kevin Harvick qualified 18th despite a power steering problem that surfaced during the first lap of Friday’s opening practice and persisted throughout time trials.

MORE: Harvick not relying on Atlanta history on Sunday

Harvick couldn’t turn his No. 4 Ford to the right, meaning he couldn’t correct the car off the corners.

“Today has been a complete waste of time for us,” Harvick said. “The car won’t steer. It won’t turn to the right. We can’t figure out what is wrong with the steering to make it go straight.

“It has been a bit of a challenge today. We haven’t really made any laps that you can actually turn the car. We were kind of just hoping for the best there, and it didn’t fix any of it.”

Joey Logano will start 27th after his car slipped on his first attempt in the opening round.

“I think it’s just the rules package,” Logano said. “We’re still trying to learn and understand what’s going on here. I just got loose the first lap behind the 10 (Almirola), trying to find the right distance behind the car I wanted to be.

“I don’t know if I was the right distance or the handling was just off. We tightened it up the second time, but it didn’t give us any speed. We will start in the back and work our way up.”