KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Absence makes the car go faster?
That’s the approach Martin Truex Jr. and crew chief Cole Pearn are embracing in electing to skip the critical test Oct. 18-19 at Homestead Miami Speedway, site of the Nov. 20 season finale that will determine the Sprint Cup championship.
Truex, who won two of the first three races in the 2016 playoffs and is among the championship favorites, said the team vacillated on the decision for weeks before Pearn decided last week against making the 2,000-mile track to South Florida from Denver, where the Furniture Row Racing is based.
“Cole feels good about that, so I’m with him,” Truex said Friday before practice at Kansas Speedway. “I think he’s making the right decision. We went to Homestead and tested the last two years and went back for the race and we were awful. It gives you a false sense of security when you go to a test like that a month ahead of the race. You feel like you’re good, you go back to the race track, and (the weather is) completely different and then you don’t know what to do. You don’t know what direction to head.”
Truex finished 12th at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2015, last among the four championship contenders. He finished 17th there two years ago – after finishing third, sixth and fourth in the previous three years with Michael Waltrip Racing.
“Homestead is a long way from Denver, so we’re just trying to make sure we’re focused on the right things,” he said. “We feel like testing honestly has not really done anything to help us along. We feel like our time is better spent at the shop getting prepared.”
The No. 78 Toyota also won the Chase for the Sprint Cup opener at Chicagoland Speedway without having tested.
“Some of our worst races this year have been after tests believe it or not, so it’s an interesting thing,” he said. “I think we’re making the right decision, but we won’t know that until Homestead.”
Truex’s team will be able to feed setup data into its simulations to prepare for the season finale, gleaning the information from Joe Gibbs Racing’s Carl Edwardsthrough Toyota Racing Development.
Edwards said he could understand why a team might skip the session.
“There’s an opportunity to test for the ultimate race – the race that finishes the year, but it’s also an interruption in your Chase, and it can take away as well,” he said. “We feel like testing at Homestead is going to benefit us. I love Homestead, I like going down to South Florida, so for me I think it’s good and our team is prepared to deal with it. There are two sides to it.”
Matt Kenseth will start from the pole for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.
Kenseth qualified first for the first time this season with a lap at 192.089 mph for the 18th pole of his career.
“It’s nice to get a pole, I feel like our qualifying hasn’t been nearly as good this year, as consistent as it has been in the years since I’ve been at JGR,” Kenseth told NBCSN. “We barely got it … obviously our Camry’s have been fast, our DeWalt Flexvolt Camry’s being driving good. Jason Ratcliff made all the right adjustments. Round One we were pretty decent, Round Two it was off a little bit off, and Round Three it was just right.”
Joe Gibbs Racing-affiliated Toyotas captured the top four starting spots with Kenseth followed by Kyle Busch (192.084), Carl Edwards (191.015) and Martin Truex Jr. (190.786). Alex Bowman (190.315) will start fifth in the No. 88 Chevrolet.
Kenseth’s pole is the 10th of the year for JGR. All four of its drivers have won a pole. Kenseth had four in 2015.
“From round one to round two the car was much tighter,” Johnson told NBCSN. “We attempted to free it up, and I’m not sure if some of those adjustments might have changed the ride height of the car, affected the splitter’s orientation to the ground. A ton tighter than what we had in the opening round.”
This will be Johnson’s fifth start of 20th or worse this season. Johnson, who won last week at Charlotte Motor Speedway to secure a spot in the Round of 8, never has made the final round of group qualifying at Kansas.
“I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing,” Johnson said. “I’m not accustomed to qualifying well all the time. I’m used to racing through traffic.”
The first round briefly was red-flagged after Ricky Stenhouse Jr. made contact with the wall exiting Turn 4. Stenhouse advanced to the second round and qualified 18th.
A championship contender – possibly the early favorite — will be absent from next week’s test at Homestead-Miami Speedway, whose Nov. 20 season finale will decide the Sprint Cup title.
Furniture Row Racing won’t bring Martin Truex Jr.’s No. 78 Toyota to the Oct. 18-19 session at the 1.5-mile oval. A team spokesman said the test was removed from the team’s schedule last week and didn’t know the reason.
Homestead-Miami Speedway will play host to the last of several “organizational tests” scheduled by NASCAR during the season. In an organizational test, which isn’t mandatory, only one car per organization is permitted to participate.
As a single-car team, Furniture Row Racing wouldn’t have been in the predicament of having to choose who would test among multiple contenders, which is the case with Joe Gibbs Racing and its four Chase-eligible drivers.
Every other remaining championship contender will be represented at Homestead-Miami Speedway next week: Team Penske (Brad Keselowski), Hendrick Motorsports (Chase Elliott), Stewart-Haas Racing (Kurt Busch), Joe Gibbs Racing (Carl Edwards), Richard Childress Racing (Austin Dillon).
Truex won two of the first three races in the 2016 playoffs at Chicagoland Speedway and Dover International Speedway. He reached the championship round last season, finishing fourth among the Chase contenders (12th overall).
Here’s the list of drivers and teams that are testing at Homestead-Miami Speedway next week (current championship contenders in bold):
A NASCAR executive discounted the notion that tracks will add a substance to their racing surface to enhance grip this year
Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice
president and chief racing development officer, made the comment Monday
on “The Morning Drive” on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
“We’re looking at a lot of different
options, meeting with Goodyear to see where and when we could apply it
and how that would affect the racing on the track,’’ O’Donnell said. “A
lot of different options that we hope to have on the table, maybe not
necessarily at the start of 2017.’’
A substance was used at Bristol Motor
Speedway before the August races for the Camping World Truck Series,
Xfinity Series and Sprint Cup Series. The Cup race saw 20 lead changes.
Only one other Bristol event in the track’s last eight Cup races had
more lead changes.
A substance was put on the high lane at
Martinsville Speedway last weekend on the final day of a tire test there
to unfavorable reviews.
Among the biggest complaints was that it made both the high lane and low lane nearly equal in lap times. Martin Truex Jr., who was among those who tested there.
“I felt like with the second groove being
as fast as the first I don’t know how you would pass anyone,’’ Truex
said. “The great racing at Martinsville is the fight for the bottom. If
you can’t hold the bottom you’re going to get passed. In that case. I
don’t believe Martinsville is a place we ought to mess with.’’
That Martinsville test was done looking
ahead to 2017. Officials from the track and NASCAR told NBC Sports that
the track’s surface would not be changed for the Sprint Cup and Camping
World Truck Series races there later this month.
Also during his appearance on SiriusXM
NASCAR Radio, O’Donnell noted the type of racing in Sunday’s event at
Charlotte Motor Speedway despite the limited practice time.
Sprint Cup teams had one practice session Friday before rain canceled two practice sessions Saturday.
“One of the things we learned this
weekend, which we’ll have to see, we’ll get some pushback from the
garage, but it was nice to see teams almost just show up and have to
race,’’ O’Donnell said. “We’re looking at how much practice is too much
practice for an event. Maybe that is something we look at in the future
as well.’’
EDITOR’S NOTE: Tonight’s race has been postponed. The
Sprint Cup race will move to noon ET Sunday on NBC. The prerace show
will begin at 11 a.m. ET. The Xfinity race, previously rescheduled for Sunday
morning will not be held 45 minutes after the Sprint Cup race. The
Xfinity race will be shown on NBCSN. The round of 12 begins with tonight’s Bank of America 500 at
Charlotte Motor Speedway on NBC. All 12 drivers have had their points
reset to 3000 for this three-race round. Here’s all the important info for today’s race. (All times are Eastern) START: The command to start engines will be given
Bank of America’s special guests, the USO of North Carolina at 6:52 p.m.
The green flag is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. DISTANCE: The race is scheduled for 334 laps (50 miles) around the 1.5-mile track. PRERACE SCHEDULE: The Cup garage opens at 11 a.m. The driver/crew chief meeting is at 4:45 p.m. Driver introductions are at 6:15 p.m. NATIONAL ANTHEM: Danielle Peck will perform the
National Anthem at 6:46 p.m., followed by a flyover by a C-130 from the
14th Airlift Wing in Charlotte, North Carolina. TV/RADIO: NBC will broadcast the race. Coverage
begins at 5 p.m. on NBCSN with NASCAR America. Countdown to Green airs
at 6 p.m. on NBCSN. Race coverage on NBC begins at 7 p.m.
Performance Racing Network’s radio broadcast begins at 5:30 p.m. and
also can be heard at goprn.com. SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will have
PRN’s broadcast. FORECAST: The wunderground.com site predicts a
temperature of 69 degrees at race time with a 17 percent chance of rain
at the start of the race. LAST TIME: Martin Truex Jr. led 392 of 400 laps to win the Coca-Cola 600 in May. Kevin Harvick placed second. Jimmie Johnson was third. In this race a year ago, Joey Logano won. Harvick was second and Truex third. STARTING LINEUP: Click here to see the starting lineup for Charlotte:
CONCORD, N.C. – Pit stops long have been a determinant in Sprint
Cup race outcomes, but the 2016 playoffs have featured the flip side of
the over-the-wall warriors who win races. Execution hasn’t been the storyline as much as the errors that can spell doom even for a dominant car. “I think now it’s certainly harder to be able to make up from those mistakes on pit road,” defending series champion Kyle Busch
said Thursday after practice at Charlotte Motor Speedway. “There’s risk
versus reward in everything we do, but pit road especially with the
extra segments and timing zones.” Since NASCAR generally doubled the timing sections at virtually all tracks three months ago, speeding penalties have spiked, and the trend has continued during the playoffs — but with a twist. The teams with the fastest cars also are among those making the most mistakes in the pits. Of the 13 pit infractions committed in the Round of 16 by Chase for
the Sprint Cup contenders, more than half belonged to the cars that have
demonstrated the most speed during the regular season. All four Joe Gibbs Racing drivers –Busch, Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth – committed pit penalties during the first three races of the playoffs. But the plight of Jimmie Johnson
has been most indicative of the immense downside of pushing the pit
limits with a stronger car. Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet has been faster
since the playoffs started, but his finishes aren’t reflecting it
because of two costly penalties. He led a race-high 118 of 270 laps at Chicagoland Speedway but was 12th
after speeding while exiting on a stop with 36 laps remaining. At Dover
International Speedway, he led 90 laps after taking the lead from
winner Martin Truex Jr. just before halfway but finished a lap down in seventh when his crew was penalized for going over the wall too soon. Truex has said Johnson’s car virtually was equal to his before
serving a pass-through punishment. It highlights the thin line between
gaining a spot that could mean a win and advancement to the next round,
or a disastrous penalty that could mean elimination. While there has been increased chatter about whether drivers should
embrace “points racing” — essentially playing it safe for top-10
finishes instead of going for broke. But Johnson’s Dover punishment raises another vexing question: Should pit crews also be erring on the more conservative side? “No, I don’t even want to think about that stuff,” Edwards said with a
grimace when asked about it. “Everybody just has to go do their jobs
the best they can, and you can’t give up any speed. It’s so competitive
that (if) you a lose a spot or two on pit road being conservative, at
the end of the day, (that) could be as bad as being fast and just having
one bad pit stop.” With Saturday’s Bank of America 500 starting the Round of 12, the
competitiveness also is expected to ratchet up with four fewer
contenders. “You can’t be conservative I guess is the short answer,” Edwards
said. “With less people, and arguably faster people, there’s less room
to give up any spots. The 12 guys racing for these eight (transfer)
spots could be first through 12th in finishing order in these first two
races. “If you’re a little bit conservative, it’s really easy to run 10th,
and you just can’t do that. We’re planning on being as fast as we can
be. The word ‘conservative’ hasn’t come up at our shop this week.” Busch said drivers have focused on “rolling time” – the distance
between the last timing line before a pit stall and the first line after
it – in order to improve speed on pit stops. Among the best has been
Johnson, but the six-time series champion also has been busted six times
for speeding this season, ranking him among the top 10 violators. “Jimmie’s been really good at that,” Busch said. “He’s probably been
one of the top-two or three all year long on rolling times, but they
also have the pit road speeding penalties to go along with it throughout
the year So there’s a fine line there, and there’s a balance that
you’ve got to be able to withhold in being able to be successful.”
Martin Truex Jr. will return to the site of his history-making Coca-Cola 600 win with the same car, but with a new sponsor on board. Furniture Row Racing announced Thursday that Maaco has signed on as a sponsor of its No. 78 Toyota entries in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The partnership with the auto painting and collision repair company starts with Saturday night's Bank of America 500 (7 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM) at Charlotte Motor Speedway. "This has been such a great season for Furniture Row Racing, bringing on new partners," Truex said. "This is just another step in that direction." Truex has a career-best four Sprint Cup victories this season, kicked off by the most dominant win in Coca-Cola 600 history at Charlotte in May. Truex won the Coors Light Pole Award and led 392 of the 400 laps. Truex said during his media availability Thursday that the
Colorado-based team will use the same car from their Memorial Day romp
this weekend.
NASCAR America discusses how Martin Truex Jr.
has combined his talent and his determination to take the No. 78 team
to the top of the Chase standings. Truex now has four wins this season,
taking his career total to seven.
A 90-minute episode of NASCAR America
begins at 6 p.m. ET on NBCSN and recaps the first elimination race of
the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Mike Massaro hosts with Dale Jarrett and Parker Kligerman in Stamford, Connecticut. Jeff Burton joins them from Burton’s Garage. In today’s show: • The Round of 16 is complete as four drivers have been eliminated from the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Gone are Kyle Larson, Jamie McMurray, Chris Buescher and Tony Stewart. The second round is set and the 12 drivers in it are led by Martin Truex Jr.,
after winning two of the first three Chase races. Jarrett,
Kligerman and Burton weigh in on the advances and the surprises,
comparing how they their Chase Grids compared to the actual after
results of the opening round. • NASCAR America takes a look back at Tony Stewart’s storied career.
He has been eliminated from the playoffs after finishing 13th at Dover.
Our analysts reveal how they will remember Tony Stewart’s final season. • We’ll also feature Sunday morning’s Xfinity Series race where Daniel Suarez joined Elliott Sadler in the second round of the Xfinity Chase. We’ll also get reaction from top-seeded Erik Jones, who now faces elimination this week at Charlotte Motor Speedway. If you can’t catch the show on TV, you also can watch it via the online stream at http://nascarstream.nbcsports.com If you plan to stream the show on your laptop or portable device, be
sure to have your username and password from your cable/satellite/telco
provider handy so your subscription can be verified. Once you plug-in that information, you’ll have access to the stream. Click here at 6 pm ET to watch live via the stream.
Martin Truex Jr. won the last visit to Charlotte when he led 392 laps and won the Coca-Cola 600. Joey Logano won the fall race last year to start a sweep of the second round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
NASCAR.com will live stream post-race inspection Tuesday from 8-11:30 a.m. ET at the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina.
Tune in for a three-hour view of the inspection floor of the 61,000-square-foot shop, bringing you behind the scenes as NASCAR officials tear down and inspect Sprint Cup Series vehicles following Sunday's Citizen Soldier 400 at Dover International Speedway.
The cars selected for further evaluation at the R&D Center this week are:
-- The No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota of race winner Martin Truex Jr.
-- The No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of second-place finisher Kyle Busch.
-- The No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet of Kevin Harvick.
-- The No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet of Tony Stewart
-- The No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet of Austin Dillon.
For more details about the inspection process, click here.
Four NASCAR teams will converge Tuesday and Wednesday for a Goodyear tire test at Martinsville Speedway, the lone short track left on the Sprint Cup Series schedule.
The four teams invited will help confirm the tire compound for the Oct. 30 Goody's Fast Relief 500, the seventh event in the 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs. Those participating at the .526-mile track are:
The Chip Ganassi Racing No. 1 Chevrolet with driver Jamie McMurray
The Roush Fenway Racing No. 16 Ford with driver Greg Biffle
The Richard Childress Racing No. 27 Chevrolet with driver Paul Menard
The Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Toyota with driver Martin Truex Jr.
Two tests remain on the Sprint Cup schedule for the rest of the year.
Another Goodyear tire test is scheduled at Kansas Speedway on Oct. 17, the day after the 1.5-mile track completes its second NASCAR weekend of the year. NASCAR is also scheduled to conduct an organizational test Oct. 18-19 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, site of the season finales for all three national series as part of Ford Championship Weekend.
LOUDON, N.H. -- Remember last week, when Kevin Harvick was trapped a lap down at Chicagoland Speedway, finished 20th and fell out of the top 12 in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings?
Remember last year, when Harvick crashed at Chicagoland and ran out of fuel while leading at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and had to win at Dover to advance in the Chase?
That's all moot, now that Harvick redeemed himself with a victory in Sunday's Bad Boy Off Road 300 at New Hampshire, the second race in the Chase.
Surging ahead of Matt Kenseth after a restart with six laps left in the 300-lap event at the 1.058-mile track, Harvick pulled away to win by .442 seconds and joined Chicagoland winner Martin Truex Jr. in the Chase's Round of 12.
"One of our main goals this year was to not stress ourselves out so bad," said Harvick, who won last year's Dover race to escape the Round of 16 in his last opportunity. "I feel like the performance of the car and the things that we're doing are good enough to be competitive, and we just need to not make mistakes and go from there."
Harvick got his opportunity to win the race when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Reed Sorenson collided on the backstretch on Lap 291 to bring out the sixth and final caution of the race.
Starting on the inside lane and timing the restart perfectly, Harvick stayed side-by-side with Kenseth entering the first corner and cleared Kenseth's No. 20 Toyota through Turn 2. Kenseth was unable to get back to the rear bumper of Harvick’s No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet over the final six laps.
"Man, that worked out really good," said Harvick, who won for the second time at the Magic Mile, the third time this season and the 34th time in his career. "The car was pretty good on the restarts. Once we got clean air there at the end, it wound up being really good up front. I'm just really proud of our team. They did a great job."
NASCAR admonished Kenseth before the final restart not to slow down in the restart zone, as the sanctioning body believed he had done on the previous restart, when Kenseth held off Truex for the lead.
"They made it sound like I slowed down the last time," Kenseth said. "But in my opinion, the leader is always supposed to have the advantage. He's the leader. He earned that advantage. They said I slowed down a little bit last time, which I've got to re-watch it.
"I don't really think I did, but if I did at all, it's because the inside car (Truex) was laying back a little bit, and you want to make sure he gets up to your nose so it's a fair restart. If he's back at your door and anticipates a little bit, it's not a fair restart. He's going to be equal to you or a little bit better."
Then Kenseth second-guessed the way he handled the final restart with Harvick beside him.
"I saw Kevin at my door, and I should have known better," Kenseth said. "I should have went deep in the box and waited, and the acceleration was probably better down there anyway, but I didn't. I went right at the first line, and he anticipated a little bit of that and got rolling good through the gears, and then I got through the gears bad. I spun the tires in second (gear), I spun the tires in third, so I had a really bad restart besides all that."
Kyle Busch finished third behind Harvick and Kenseth after pitting for fresh tires under caution on Lap 265 and charging through the field. Brad Keselowski ran fourth and took over the Chase points lead by one point over Truex, who led a race-high 141 laps in a seventh-place run but wore out his tires trying to pass Kenseth after a restart on Lap 269.
Kurt Busch came home fifth, followed by polesitter Carl Edwards, Truex, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne and Kyle Larson.
Harvick escaped the bottom four in the standings, and that left Jamie McMurray, Austin Dillon, Tony Stewart and Chris Buescher all needing to improve their positions to avoid elimination next Sunday at Dover International Speedway.
McMurray and Dillon (19th and 16th, respectively, at New Hampshire) are five points behind Larson in 12th place. Stewart is 11 points back of Larson after a 23rd-place run on Sunday, and Buescher trails by 30 points, needing a Dover miracle.
LOUDON, N.H. -- Remember last week, when Kevin Harvick was trapped a lap down at Chicagoland Speedway, finished 20th and fell out of the top 12 in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings?
Remember last year, when Harvick crashed at Chicagoland and ran out of fuel while leading at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and had to win at Dover to advance in the Chase?
That's all moot, now that Harvick redeemed himself with a victory in Sunday's Bad Boy Off Road 300 at New Hampshire, the second race in the Chase.
Surging ahead of Matt Kenseth after a restart with six laps left in the 300-lap event at the 1.058-mile track, Harvick pulled away to win by .442 seconds and joined Chicagoland winner Martin Truex Jr. in the Chase's Round of 12.
"One of our main goals this year was to not stress ourselves out so bad," said Harvick, who won last year's Dover race to escape the Round of 16 in his last opportunity. "I feel like the performance of the car and the things that we're doing are good enough to be competitive, and we just need to not make mistakes and go from there."
Harvick got his opportunity to win the race when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Reed Sorenson collided on the backstretch on Lap 291 to bring out the sixth and final caution of the race.
Starting on the inside lane and timing the restart perfectly, Harvick stayed side-by-side with Kenseth entering the first corner and cleared Kenseth's No. 20 Toyota through Turn 2. Kenseth was unable to get back to the rear bumper of Harvick’s No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet over the final six laps.
"Man, that worked out really good," said Harvick, who won for the second time at the Magic Mile, the third time this season and the 34th time in his career. "The car was pretty good on the restarts. Once we got clean air there at the end, it wound up being really good up front. I'm just really proud of our team. They did a great job."
NASCAR admonished Kenseth before the final restart not to slow down in the restart zone, as the sanctioning body believed he had done on the previous restart, when Kenseth held off Truex for the lead.
"They made it sound like I slowed down the last time," Kenseth said. "But in my opinion, the leader is always supposed to have the advantage. He's the leader. He earned that advantage. They said I slowed down a little bit last time, which I've got to re-watch it.
"I don't really think I did, but if I did at all, it's because the inside car (Truex) was laying back a little bit, and you want to make sure he gets up to your nose so it's a fair restart. If he's back at your door and anticipates a little bit, it's not a fair restart. He's going to be equal to you or a little bit better."
Then Kenseth second-guessed the way he handled the final restart with Harvick beside him.
"I saw Kevin at my door, and I should have known better," Kenseth said. "I should have went deep in the box and waited, and the acceleration was probably better down there anyway, but I didn't. I went right at the first line, and he anticipated a little bit of that and got rolling good through the gears, and then I got through the gears bad. I spun the tires in second (gear), I spun the tires in third, so I had a really bad restart besides all that."
Kyle Busch finished third behind Harvick and Kenseth after pitting for fresh tires under caution on Lap 265 and charging through the field. Brad Keselowski ran fourth and took over the Chase points lead by one point over Truex, who led a race-high 141 laps in a seventh-place run but wore out his tires trying to pass Kenseth after a restart on Lap 269.
Kurt Busch came home fifth, followed by polesitter Carl Edwards, Truex, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne and Kyle Larson.
Harvick escaped the bottom four in the standings, and that left Jamie McMurray, Austin Dillon, Tony Stewart and Chris Buescher all needing to improve their positions to avoid elimination next Sunday at Dover International Speedway.
McMurray and Dillon (19th and 16th, respectively, at New Hampshire) are five points behind Larson in 12th place. Stewart is 11 points back of Larson after a 23rd-place run on Sunday, and Buescher trails by 30 points, needing a Dover miracle.
LOUDON, N.H. -- Jimmie Johnson felt certain he'd be facing a much larger deficit in the second event of the 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs. A points penalty for his Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet failing its post-race pass through the Laser Inspection Station (LIS) platform last week likely would have dropped him into the bottom four of the 16-driver postseason field. But Johnson said he received a phone call Wednesday afternoon on his way back from his race shop that altered his outlook. NASCAR competition officials had just implemented a midweek update regarding minor LIS infractions, offering a reprieve for both himself and the Furniture Row Racing No. 78 team of last weekend's race winner, Martin Truex Jr. "I was just taking my lumps and going on with my business and then kind of Christmas showed up in September," Johnson said Friday after qualifying fourth for Sunday's Bad Boy Off Road 300 (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM) at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. "Just unexpected, but happy." NASCAR's competition department announced Wednesday that P2 and P3-level penalties would be eliminated for lesser LIS violations found in post-race inspections, leaving the stricter P4-grade punishments in place for more egregious infractions. Truex, who automatically advanced to the Chase's next round with his victory at Chicagoland Speedway, and Johnson were not penalized in the points standings. Johnson said he was pleasantly surprised, though he knew his car was slightly outside of the allowable measurements for its rear axle offset, or "skew." "I really feel NASCAR was trying to create a penalty system that was more forgiving," Johnson said. "Stuff bends, stuff moves, and they set those tolerances up to really help the garage area and then to keep cars failing out of the headlines. But it's tough. There's a lot of moving parts in these cars and of course we're trying to get as much skew as we can and we failed. "I'm sure directionally, it was an advantage. Everybody will take every hundredth of an inch they can get. I think we were four thousandths over. I don't know how much of an advantage you can get in four thousandths. That's awfully, awfully small, but we're in a world now where it's black or white." The non-penalty kept Johnson in the heart of the Chase's opening round, slotted eighth with a 13-point spread behind series leader Truex. Four drivers will be eliminated from championship eligibility after next weekend's race at Dover International Speedway, where Johnson has won a record 10 times. Johnson's current ranking could be worse had the penalty taken effect, but it could have been better as well. Johnson was solidly on the verge of a top-five finish last week at Chicagoland, but a pit-road speeding penalty on his penultimate stop bumped him outside the top 10. Johnson said he began to accelerate just 2 feet too early at the pit-exit line, sending him over the speed limit for the final timing section and offsetting the performance strides the No. 48 team had made in recent weeks. "We've definitely been showing speed over the last month and a half," Johnson said. "That's been something that's very welcomed and it's been a lot of hard work to get to that point. Unfortunately, mistakes still are continuing to happen and last week was on me." RELATED: Hear Johnson's reaction on the scanner
Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. each led the way in Saturday morning’s first practice session at New Hampshire Motor Speedway after they both posted a fast lap of 132.186 mph.
Truex posted the best average speed over 10 consecutive laps at 131.139 mph. He was followed by Kenseth (131.033 mph) and Kyle Busch (130.757). Twenty-two of the 40 cars ran at least 10 consecutive laps in the session.
