SPARTA, Ky. – Judging from the comments drivers were making after they got their first track time with the new low-downforce aerodynamic package, the Sprint Cup cars are a handful to drive—by design.
“They don’t drive good, that’s for sure,” said Team Penske driver Joey Logano, who posted the fourth fastest practice time and consequently will start fourth in Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 because of a qualifying rainout. “They slide all over the place. What happens in traffic is still probably an unknown, but there was a lot of slipping and sliding around, and trying to figure out which way the car is going when you go into the corner is kind of hard.”
Logano’s teammate Brad Keselowski, the winner at Kentucky in 2012 and 2014, isn’t complaining.
“It’s a race car,” Keselowski said. “It should be hard to drive. It shouldn’t be just point and play. This isn’t a video game, nor should it be. So I’m very happy with the package and what I’ve seen so far.”
Understandably so. Keselowski was second fastest in Friday morning’s practice and will start on the outside of the front row in Saturday night’s race.
KENTUCKY COMPLETES REPAIR OF FENCING
Repairs to the catchfence and SAFER barriers at Kentucky Speedway were completed early Friday morning, after Ben Kennedy’s wreck in the UNOH 225 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race took out two support poles and knocked a hole in the fencing.
Track general manager Mark Simendinger said the facility warehouses extra poles and has a repair team on standby for rare cases of damage to the fencing. Kennedy’s Toyota got airborne after colliding with David Gilliland’s truck with five laps left in Thursday night’s event.
NASCAR called the race at that point, with leader Matt Crafton declared the winner.
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.
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