Kyle Busch forced to backup after smacking wall in final practice

September 4, 2015 Greg Engle Main Page, NASCAR News Top Story, Top Stories 0

DARLINGTON, SC - SEPTEMBER 04: Crew members inspect the damaged #18 M&M's Crispy Toyota, driven by Kyle Busch, in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Bojangles' Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on September 4, 2015 in Darlington, South Carolina. The team proceeded to prepare their backup car following an on-track incident. (Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images)
DARLINGTON, SC - SEPTEMBER 04: Crew members inspect the damaged #18 M&M's Crispy Toyota, driven by Kyle Busch, in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Bojangles' Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on September 4, 2015 in Darlington, South Carolina. The team proceeded to prepare their backup car following an on-track incident. (Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images)
DARLINGTON, SC – SEPTEMBER 04: Crew members inspect the damaged #18 M&M’s Crispy Toyota, driven by Kyle Busch, in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on September 4, 2015 in Darlington, South Carolina. The team proceeded to prepare their backup car following an on-track incident. (Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images)

A long test session for the NASCAR Sprint Cup series turned into a mad scramble for the Joe Gibbs Racing team of Kyle Busch Friday at Darlington Raceway after he acquired a Darlington stripe.  For the second time this season, NASCAR is using a low-downforce package for Sunday’s Southern 500.  Due to this, teams had a bit longer final practice session Friday.  At the end of the 115-minute “Happy Hour”, Brad Keselowski was atop the speed chart with a lap of 175.880 mph put down late in the session.

Greg Biffle, who led the first session earlier in the day, was second in the final practice with a lap of 175.729 mph.  Kurt Busch, the only driver who has elected to run the new digital dashboard this weekend, was fast in both sessions; second in the first, and third just behind Biffle in the final. The focus however was on the low-downforce package. As they did at Kentucky Speedway in July, the Sprint Cup cars the weekend  have a spoiler height of 3.5 inches, down from 6 inches at other tracks this season. Also, front splitters have 1.75 inches less overhang. The package met with near universal approval after the Kentucky race as for the first time cars were able to pass seemingly at will and on occasions there were three and four wide battles for position.

Friday the package seemed to be meeting with approval. Carl Edwards has been a proponent of the package since NASCAR announced it. MORE>>>

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Greg is a published award winning sportswriter who spent 23 years combined active and active reserve military service, much of that in and around the Special Operations community. Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.