|
Posted 05/26/2012 at 12:26 PM
Not a lot changed after the first five minutes of Saturday’s early practice session at Charlotte Motor Speedway in preparation for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600. Denny Hamlin topped the charts with the fastest lap of 186.239 mph early on when the temperatures were cool. For the remainder of the 55-minute session the leader board appeared as though it stood still.
****************
The only driver within the top-30 speeds that bettered their first few laps was Kurt Busch -- in a back-up car -- who found speed on the 18th of his 20 laps run, which put him 29th fastest.
***************
Paul Menard was second fastest (186.123) followed by Carl Edwards (186.021) and Kyle Busch (185.021). For both Edwards and Busch, they have to be ecstatic about being fast in this session after struggling most of the season trying to find speed on the fast tracks.
***************
A few of the teams commented that this early practice was the most important session of the weekend to get their car ideally set. In the final practice, set to begin at 1 pm (ET), the track will be blazing hot and greasy, both conditions that won’t be applicable when the race begins a 6:18 pm (ET) Sunday evening.
******************
Continuing his trend of being very fast in practice was Martin Truex Jr. who had the fifth fastest single lap as well as having the best 10-consecutive lap average. Just like Hamlin, Truex Jr. gained his top speed on his very first lap.
*********************
Hamlin ran 33 laps while Truex Jr ran 45. The lap leader on the day was Kyle Busch with 53, apparently showing they have no worries about extra mileage on their engine before they're about to run 600 miles. Busch also ran the most laps in Thursday’s practice, a session most teams used only for qualifying set-ups.
***************
Perhaps those extra race runs Thursday allowed Busch’s team to be right where they needed to be for today’s early session and better their chances Sunday. Hamlin ran quite a few laps Thursday as well, as did Joey Logano. The additional time may also have helped Hamlin's team be prepared early, but not so much for Logano who finished with 22nd fastest lap.
***************
No one is hotter right now than Jimmie Johnson who won at Darlington two weeks ago and took last week’s All-Star race, which may be bad news for the rest of the field. We’ve seen Chad Knaus and that No. 48 team look like they were going through lulls over the last decade and then break out with an unbelievable run that usually ended up with a Championship trophy.
*************
"The company," Johnson said Thursday, "is still on a high from the 200th win and the All-Star win just kicked it up another notch."
***************
Johnson and his team once again look dialed in as he ran the sixth fastest lap, which was good enough to keep JJ as the favorite in Las Vegas sports books to win on Sunday which would be the seventh of his career at Charlotte.
****************
Brad Kesleowski hasn’t fared well on the tracks similar to Charlotte this season, but did run well enough to get a runner-up finish last week and practices indicate he may be a driver to contend on Sunday. In addition to having the second best 10-consecutive lap averages, Keselowski also had the seventh fastest individual lap at 185.631 mph.
|
