Almirola, Logano set pace in Saturday practice sessions at Dover

Posted on May 5, 2018May 5, 2018 by Staff Report

Aric Almirola topped the board in final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice Saturday at Dover International Speedway.

Almirola powered the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 10 Ford to a best lap of 158.277 mph around the 1-mile Delaware track. He’ll start 13th in Sunday’s AAA 400 Drive for Autism (2 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM).

Chase Elliott logged the second-fastest lap in the 50-minute session, registering 158.054 mph in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 Chevrolet. Clint Bowyer, Almirola’s SHR teammate, was third-fastest with pole-starter Kyle Larson fourth and another Stewart-Haas driver, Kevin Harvick, in fifth.

Jimmie Johnson, the defending race winner and 11 times a victor at the Monster Mile, was seventh-fastest in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet.

Two teams served 15-minute penalties in final practice for failing pre-qualifying inspection twice:

The No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford of Kevin Harvick
The No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford of Kurt Busch

MORE: Best consecutive 10-lap averages

Penske drivers go 1-2 in Saturday’s early practice

Joey Logano rose to the top of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series speed chart, leading a 1-2 sweep for Team Penske in Saturday’s early practice at Dover International Speedway.

Logano clocked a lap of 157.494 mph in the No. 22 Ford. He’ll start 18th in Sunday’s AAA 400 Drive for Autism (2 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM), the 11th of 36 points-paying races this season for NASCAR’s top division.

RELATED: Practice 2 results

Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski secured the second-fastest lap at 157.453 mph in the No. 2 Ford. His best lap was just .006 seconds off Logano’s pace-setting time.

Defending series champion Martin Truex Jr. was third-fastest in the Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Toyota with Chase Elliott and Aric Almirola completing the top five on the 1-mile track.

Kyle Larson, who won the No. 1 starting spot in Friday’s Busch Pole Qualifying, was seventh-fastest in the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 Chevrolet. Jimmie Johnson, an 11-time Dover winner, was 13th-fastest in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevy.

Competition officials assessed 15-minute practice deductions to five teams for being late to pre-qualifying inspection:

The No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford of Trevor Bayne
The No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Daniel Suarez
The No. 23 BK Racing Toyota of Gray Gaulding
The No. 95 Leavine Family Racing Chevrolet of Kasey Kahne
The No. 99 StarCom Racing Chevrolet of Derrike Cope

Posted on May 4, 2018 by

DOVER, Del. — His eyes raw and his face flushed, the emotion was evident from Noah Gragson following his waning-lap wreck out of Friday’s Camping World Truck race at Dover International Speedway.

The sophomore driver called himself “dejected,” his typically- playful personality dwindled to a melancholy state as he spoke of his late-race aggression with race-winner Johnny Sauter that led to a hard hit into the wall.

“I blew the opportunity,” Gragson said. “There’s so many small opportunities you get as a race car driver to win these races. Just devastated. Definitely not proud of the way that I raced him. I wasn’t trying to wreck him … just really hard racing there at the end. Just really bummed out for everyone that supports me back home in Las Vegas … everybody who makes this possible. Just unacceptable on my part.”

Gragson was racing Sauter side-by-side for the win with two laps to go when his No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota spiraled down and hit the wall hard after he tried to side-draft Sauter’s No. 21. After his No. 18 came to a stop, Gragson sat in his car for a moment, as he hit the steering wheel with his fists and put his hands to his helmet.

It was “wreckers or checkers” for him, he said, and unfortunately, his No. 18 ended up on a tow truck with a 20th-place finish instead of in Victory Lane.

“Felt like I just woke up from a dream, I couldn’t believe it happened,” Gragson said of that moment. “Just really disappointed in myself.”

MORE: Sauter on Gragson: ‘I would have raced him the same way’

Gragson passed team owner Kyle Busch after leaving the infield care center, stopping for a brief conversation. His last stop was in Victory Lane, where he apologized to Sauter for the way the last laps played out.

“(I wasn’t) trying to wreck him or anything,” Gragson said. “That’s not the way I race — I wanted to win it fair and square. Sometimes when you’re at these races, it’s getting down to the end, you’re trying to push it, you sometimes step over the line. It wasn’t intentional at all.”

Sauter said he was “glad he came over and apologized. So, no harm, no foul…

“He’s learning, he’s pushing the envelope,” he said. “He’s got to figure out where the line is.”

Both Gragson and Sauter will compete in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Dover (12:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM), with Gragson competing in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, while Sauter will race the No. 23 GMS Racing Chevrolet.

Posted on May 4, 2018 by Staff Report

Brennan Poole will get behind the wheel of the No. 23 Chevrolet that competes in the Xfinity Series during a test at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Monday, GMS Racing’s Mike Beam confirmed on Friday night.

Spencer Gallagher, last week’s winner at Talladega Superspeedway and the full-time driver of the car, was suspended indefinitely by NASCAR earlier this week for a Substance Abuse Policy penalty.

MORE: Gallagher handed penalty | Gallagher, GMS issue statements

Poole raced full-time in the Xfinity Series the past two seasons and placed sixth in the standings last year.

As far as beyond Monday, nothing has been set in place yet.

“We’ve talked to a lot of people and we’re going to take it one race at a time,” Beam said after GMS’ Johnny Sauter won the JEGS 200 Camping World Truck Series race at Dover International Speedway.

Sauter is in the Xfinity car for Saturday’s OneMain Financial 200 (12:30 p.m. ET, FS1).

Posted on May 4, 2018May 4, 2018 by Reid Spencer

DOVER, Del. — After what had happened moments earlier, Johnny Sauter’s victory in a two-lap overtime shootout seemed almost routine by comparison.

Sauter, who turned 40 on May 1, held off fellow 40-something Matt Crafton to win Friday’s JEGS 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Dover International Speedway — but not until Sauter won an intense struggle against pole winner Noah Gragson, whose race ended on the next-to-last lap of regulation when his No. 18 Toyota backed hard into the outside wall.

The victory was Sauter’s second straight at Dover, his second of the season and the 19th of his career. And it came during a bittersweet week for GMS Racing, after Spencer Gallagher, the son of team owner Maury Gallagher, won his first NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega and on Tuesday was suspended indefinitely for a violation of NASCAR’s substance abuse policy.

MORE: Full race results

“Tough week for the Gallagher family—this one’s for Spencer,” Sauter said. “He’s a smart kid, and he’ll get it right.”

Gragson grabbed the lead from Sauter one circuit after a restart on Lap 188 of a scheduled 200, but Sauter wasn’t finished. With six laps left, Sauter got a strong run to the outside, but Gragson cut him off, and Sauter’s No. 21 Chevrolet tapped the wall.

“We had to work for this one today,” Sauter said. “Noah, I had a good run on him there, and he squeezed me off. And I was like, ‘He just gave me the green light to be aggressive.’ This was just hard racing right there.”

The drivers were racing side-by-side for the lead coming to the white flag when Gragson’s attempt to side-draft Sauter’s Silverado went awry. Gragson lost control and crashed, destroying the rear end of his Kyle Busch Motorsports Tundra.

Gragson, who won’t turn 20 until July 15, was disconsolate when he left the infield care center after the wreck.

“I’m really disappointed in myself,” he said. “It’s just a racing deal. These things are so hard to win, and I was so close to getting my first win (of the season). I went up to side-draft him and got pointed to the inside wall and went up to side-draft him again—and it was just a racing deal.

“Not the way I try to race people. I take full responsibility in that right there. It was a hundred percent my fault. It’s just unacceptable on my part. Man, I was so close to winning. All I can think about is just the mistake I made. I really wanted to get that monster (trophy). This is such a bad-ass track, and not to be able to get it done … I’m just devastated.”

After Gragson’s wreck and subsequent cleanup, the race restarted on Lap 209. Crafton got an excellent restart and held his own against Sauter through the first two corners but couldn’t clear him. Sauter then pulled out to a two car-length lead and took the checkered flag a lap later.

“We just did not have short-run speed,” said the 41-year-old Crafton. “For whatever reason, it would just not fire off. I had a really good restart there at the end, and I moved him up as far as I could. I was waiting for Stevie (Reeves), the spotter to tell me, ‘Clear, clear.’ I knew I was close, real close.

“Johnny turned 40 this week, so he’s part of the old man crew, and we got a lot of flak this week by being the 40-year-olds, but the 40-year-olds showed the kids how to do it, I guess.”

WATCH: Sauter celebrates second straight Dover win

One of those kids, 19-year-old Justin Haley, ran a solid, consistent third. David Gilliland came home fourth in his second start of the season, and Harrison Burton finished fifth. Cody Coughlin, Joe Nemechek, Ben Rhodes, Jesse Little and Todd Gilliland (David’s son) completed the top 10.

Sauter extended his series lead to 51 points over second-place Rhodes and 58 over third-place Gragson. The series races next at Kansas Speedway with Friday’s 250-miler (8:30 p.m. ET, FS1).

WATCH: Friesen slams the wall in late-race crash

Posted on May 4, 2018 by Holly Cain

Dover, Del. — Martin Truex Jr. fully concedes that Dover International Speedway feels like home to him.

The reigning Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion and New Jersey native scored his first career Cup victory in only his third start on the notoriously tough Dover miler, then won again in 2016. In the last eight races at the track he has seven top-10 finishes. The eighth? An 11th place. He’s led a combined 518 laps in the last six races and has led at least 100 laps three times during that span.

If that provides a dose of optimism for Sunday’s AAA 400 Drive for Autism (2 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Truex, 38, and his Furniture Row Racing team will certainly take it. He’s had a rough April, crashing out in three of the last four races including last Sunday at Talladega.

“First time I came here, I fell in love with the track and I think any time you like a place you tend to understand it better and are able to just figure it out just a little bit quicker,” Truex said of Dover.

“I guess coming up through the ranks figuring out the feel that I needed at this race track and what it took to be successful is something that I’ve carried through all the teams I’ve raced for and all the series I’ve raced in here. Been able to use that throughout the years to be successful and I feel like the numbers don’t even show really the success that we’ve had at this track.

“I’ve had so many really good races end in heartbreak here, and of course we’ve won a few along the way as well, so it’s not been stats-wise I guess — I don’t even know if it’s my best track — but definitely performance-wise I think it’s up there with one of our best.”

Dover is one of four tracks where Truex has multiple wins. And he’s won three pole positions here — second only to Ryan Newman’s four among active drivers. More than half of his 24 starts have resulted in top-10 finishes (13) and another telling statistic at this traditionally tough venue — Truex has only two DNFs in 12 years of Cup racing here.

His driver rating (97.2) is fifth best in the field — and that’s with two drivers — Chase Elliott (four) and Kyle Larson (eight) — ranked higher with only 12 starts between the two of them.

All that said, Truex smiled Friday when asked if he has Dover all figured out.

“It’s very challenging — one of the most challenging on the circuit just from a standpoint of how it can bite you, how hard you have to attack all the time and, you know, the consequences when you mess up are pretty bad here,” he acknowledged.

“It’s definitely a difficult track in that mindset. For me coming here initially, it took a while to get up the nerve to get to where I needed to make the car. It was like, ‘OK, I keep going and driving harder and harder and harder and the car still wants me to go faster,’ you know?”

Truex knows what he needs to do. He scored five top-five finishes in the first six races of the season, including his first win of the year (from the pole position at Fontana, Calif.) He led the points standings for the first time since hoisting the 2017 Monster Energy Cup following that California victory.

But the last four weeks, his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota team has suffered through uncharacteristically tough luck. He’s had three finishes of 26th or worse — including a 37th place finish at Texas Motor Speedway where he completed only 80 of the 334 laps.

He’s ranked ninth in the standings entering Sunday’s race, the lowest he’s been since a 12th place in the season-opening Daytona 500. He wasn’t ranked lower than seventh all last season after a 17th-place showing the 2016 Daytona 500, and he led the Cup standings for the final 19 weeks of the season en route to claiming his first championship.

“I think that I’d say our sport probably changes more week-to-week than it does year-to-year,” Truex said. “So we’ve had four tough races in a row right now and we’re ninth in points. … You’re only as good as your last race ,so they say, and right now I wouldn’t say we’re the hunted — I’d say we’re the hunters.”

Posted on May 4, 2018 by

DOVER, Del. – Kyle Larson’s blistering-fast 158.103-mph lap put him on the pole for Sunday’s AAA Drive for Autism 400 at Dover International Speedway — and also marked the first non-restrictor plate pole for Chevrolet this season.

At this point in the season last year, Larson had nabbed a pole and started first three times (with rain washing away qualifying efforts at 2017’s Martinsville and Bristol spring races).

“We’ve always qualified good here, have yet to get a pole and raced well here and have yet to get a win, so maybe we’ll get both out of the way this weekend,” Larson told FS1 after nabbing the top spot.

Chevrolet’s quest for speed has yet to be fully successful this year with drivers like Larson and seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson still searching for their first wins in the new Camaro ZL1. Through 10 races this season, only Austin Dillon’s Daytona 500 win featured a Chevrolet in Victory Lane.

But Dover is a place where the Chevrolets could flex their muscle; the “bowtie” has won seven of the last 10 races at the Monster Mile, with Johnson accounting for four of those wins and reaching Victory Lane in this race last season. Larson and fellow Chevrolet driver Chase Elliott, who will start sixth, also ranked 1-2 in the second round of qualifying.

Larson attributed his first pole of the season to the strides his team has made this season.

“Our team’s been working really hard to make our cars better and better,” he said. “Each race we’ve gone to, they’ve been excited about the race cars that they’ve brought to the track because they’ve been steps in the right direction of more downforce or whatever. So, it’s cool to see it really paying off with us getting the pole. It’s still a long weekend left; starting up front is a very important thing here, it can get tough to pass and all that. …

“Looking forward to practice tomorrow, get some laps in race trim and see what we got for Sunday.”

Posted on May 4, 2018May 4, 2018 by Reid Spencer

DOVER, Del. – In a sport where differences are often measured in thousandths, Kyle Larson was in firm control of Friday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series knockout qualifying session at Dover International Speedway — after an adjustment between the first and second rounds at least.

Larson charged around the high-banked one-mile concrete track in 22.770 seconds (158.103 mph) to earn the pole position for Sunday’s AAA 400. Saving his fastest lap for the third and final round, Larson was the only driver to top 158 mph during the session.

RELATED: Qualifying results | At-track photos

Kevin Harvick, a three-time winner in 2018, earned the second position on the grid with a lap at 157.494 mph (22.858 seconds). Reigning series champion Martin Truex Jr. from Mayetta, New Jersey, qualified third at 157.432 mph at the venue he considers his home track.

Larson’s No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet was too loose in the first round, drifted to the tight side in the second — though he was still able to lead the round at 157.432 mph. In the third round, however, the team found the sweet spot for Larson’s Camaro ZL1.

“I felt like I nailed that lap pretty good,” Larson said of his effort in the money round. “Everything from coming to the green to (Turns) 1 and 2 were really good. (Turns) 3 and 4, I maybe left a little bit out there. I got in there a little hot and up the track. I planned on kind of moving up the race track each round.

“The first round caught me of guard. I was really loose getting in, but they made great adjustments on the DC Solar Chevy throughout the next two rounds. The second round we were probably a little too tight, but they kind of found the happy medium there for the final round. So, I’m happy about that. We’ve always qualified good here. I had yet to get a pole. I’ve raced well here but have yet to get a win. Maybe we’ll get both out of the way this weekend.”

In fact, Larson has scored top-five finishes in four of his eight starts at the Monster Mile, including seconds in each of the last two spring races. His average finishing position is 7.9.

The Busch Pole Award is Larson’s first of the season, the fifth of his career and his first at a track shorter than two miles.

With a career average starting position of 16.7 at Dover, Harvick was happy to put his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford on the front row.

“We’re feeling good about qualifying well,” Harvick said. “That’s not been something that we’ve done 100-percent great here. We’ve qualified OK. It definitely goes a long way in helping get your day started.

“This is definitely a race track that can take a while to work your way up the field, so you don’t want to dig yourself a hole early on. They made the car better all three rounds. We ran our fastest lap at the end. I lost a lot of time in (Turns) 1 and 2. I got myself hung a little higher and longer than I needed to finish the corner. Still a good lap for us and I’m looking forward to race runs.”

Kyle Busch claimed the fourth position on the grid. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chase Elliott, Daniel Suarez and Brad Keselowski will start from the fifth through eighth positions, respectively.

Jimmie Johnson, an 11-time winner at Dover who hopes to jump-start a heretofore lackluster season, will have to do so from the 19th starting spot.

Posted on May 4, 2018May 4, 2018 by Reid Spencer

Jamie McMurray is none the worse for wear after his car got airborne during practice last week at Talladega.

The impact from the nose of Ryan Newman’s car launched McMurray’s machine into the air. The car rolled six times and hit the inside catch fence on the backstretch before settling upright on the apron. The car landed upright, and McMurray emerged unhurt.

RELATED: Full schedule for Dover

In fact, he felt good enough to go on a 60-mile bike ride up North Carolina’s Mt. Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi River.

“It’s crazy to have a wreck that it that spectacular to watch and that many flips and tumbles and I really didn’t even have a bruise on my body,” McMurray said on Friday at Dover. “I got to look at the car on Monday, and it’s amazing how much the roll cage was smashed in, but then how everything around me was still perfect. I actually got our whole fab shop and the guys together on Tuesday when I was at the shop to thank everyone.”

Posted on May 4, 2018May 4, 2018 by Reid Spencer

Admittedly, the sample size is small, but Dover International speedway is one of Daniel Suarez’s best Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series tracks.

In his 2017 rookie season at NASCAR’s top level, Suarez qualified third and fifth and finished sixth and eighth in his two appearances at the Monster Mile. And he comes to Dover this week after consecutive results of 11th, 10th and 10th at Bristol, Richmond and Talladega, respectively.

After a sluggish start to the season, which included a crash in the Daytona 500 that knocked him out of the race on Lap 60, Suarez has climbed to 21st in the series standings over the last two weeks.

“Definitely, the first month and half of so of the season was a little rough,” Suarez said on Friday at Dover. “We had speed pretty much everywhere we were going. We just had a lot of inconsistency, and for whatever reason, we were not doing a good job putting ourselves in a good position by the end of the races — getting involved in different accidents or just not good positions.

“And I feel like I was putting maybe a little bit too much pressure on myself to try to do well. The last month or so, I’ve been just more relaxed and doing just this without expecting to be great, and things are coming our way again. The speed, like I said, has been there pretty much the entire year. It’s just the results and the consistency, but it seems like now we’re heading in the right direction.”

Suarez also believes qualifying for the Playoff is a distinct possibility.

“Playoff position? Oh, yeah, there’s plenty of time,” he said. “I feel like it’s still very early.”

Posted on May 4, 2018 by Reid Spencer

DOVER, Del. — No matter how much he’d like to, Joey Logano knows he’ll never be able to escape his spectacular past at Dover International Speedway.

Nine years ago, last Sunday’s Talladega winner was the victim of a crash that still is a focal point in video highlights of the track. Driving the No. 20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing at the time, Logano was turned into the outside wall and barrel-rolled five times down the high-banked concrete track, with his mangled car coming to rest on the apron.

“It is a spectacular moment here,” Logano acknowledged. “Unfortunately, when people think of Joey Logano and Dover, they think of that big crash. Even if I win, I still think people will think of that crash. That’s just what happens until someone else barrel-rolls.

“I hope that doesn’t happen to anybody. Oh, well. It was so long ago that it doesn’t bother me. It is what it is.”

It didn’t take the speedway long to incorporate Logano’s wreck into its marketing program.

“I always thought the funniest part was when I came back here the next race, and they had the race program with Miles the Monster, and it had Miles the Monster holding my car in his hand and when you moved the cover, the monster slammed my car into the ground.

“Thanks, Dover! We’re good now, though.”