Darlington Raceway, affectionately known as the "Track too tough tame," offered wild rides to many NASCAR Sprint Cup competitors throughout practice into qualifying Friday afternoon.
A combination of wrecks, tires, track position and short tempers should be just a sampling of what’s in store for Saturday night’s Showtime Southern 500.
The track’s first of eight victims that pulled out backup cars was Dale Earnhardt Jr. On just his second lap of first practice, Earnhardt slammed the wall between Turns 1 and 2. The crew opted for a backup car which ended up slapping the wall 15 minutes before that same first practice ended.
Earnhardt admitted the team started the session with a loose car that "got out from underneath" him.
"It is slick," Earnhardt said. "I got my car pretty comfortable. I liked my lap times. Wish I could get a little more comfort in the car. You know, we are just getting on the edge right there. This track is real smooth and you can find that edge."
Along with Earnhardt, Clint Bowyer, Scott Speed, Joe Nemechek, Greg Biffle, Casey Mears and Marcos Ambrose all ended up in backup cars before qualifying. Consequently, Nemechek and Mears missed the show.
Kurt Busch, who is currently eighth in the point standings, almost joined the list when he spun out during final practice, but he missed the wall and only required changing four tires to get back up to speed.
"It just seemed like the tire blew and when I finally got it to a stop, we had all four (tires) blown out," Busch said. "We were able to get a set of tires and go back out there and run some competitive track times.
"The toughest angle that we have here, one like we had at Richmond, Phoenix, it’s where you get all your practice in during the hot afternoon, then you race at night."
Kyle Busch described wrecking his primary in practice to "getting straight in the fence like two skis." Although he continued on to qualifying with sheet metal damage, both Busch and Reed Sorenson lost control of their cars during time trials with the No. 18 team opting for the backup car. Busch will start from the rear of the field on Saturday.
Of the drivers experiencing earlier issues, Ambrose exacted the best revenge with the seventh-best qualifying effort after a lap of 179.037 mph.
"That was the first lap that car has done, because we crashed in practice with about five minutes to go," Ambrose said. "We had to go to the backup and no idea what we had. I was feeling pretty jinxed. To come out with this lap, it was totally unexpected."
One interesting element that will be introduced Saturday night at Darlington is NASCAR’s double-file restart rule. The sanctioning body brought the practice into play at Pocono last June. Kyle Busch, who won the race in 2008, sees the potential for dust-ups "especially getting into turn one".
"Guys are going to be going for broke," Busch said. "The guys on the outside are going to try to hang out there. The guys on the inside are going to try to hang in there. Turn one and turn two. Turn two is probably going to be more pivotal.
"You can get through (Turn) 1 side-by-side but once you get going through the center of one and two and into two, somebody’s gotta give. If nobody is going to give, then there’s not going to be a whole lot of room for error over there."
BEST IN CLASS
Darlington has a way of surprising competitors, but it was Jamie McMurray that provided a pleasant surprise -- a track qualifying record lap of 180.370 mph for the 61st running of the Southern 500. McMurray, who won his second pole of the season, will share the front row with seven-time Darlington winner Jeff Gordon (180.323 mph).
Unlike many of the competitors complaining about the track on Friday, McMurray has enjoyed racing on the track since it was repaved two years ago. As challenging as the track can be, McMurray claims "it’s not really scary -- by any means."
"With the old pavement was you just couldn't run the same pace," McMurray said. "No matter where you let off, the next lap you had to let off a little bit earlier. The way it is now, the track has got a lot more grip and the tires don't give up quite as much.
"I did get into the fence today but, it's one of those things where you know you are going to hit for a long time and you are just trying to whoa the car down as much as you can so you do the least amount of damage. It is different than anywhere else because you know as soon as you as you enter the corner, that you are going to hit because of how fast the car is sliding so you are just trying to get it slowed up as much as you can. It's really not that bad though."
Job security
Last week, Hendrick Motorsports made a point of promoting the re-signing of crew chiefs Alan Gustafson and Chad Knaus. However, no mention was made of Steve Letarte’s status with the No. 24 team.
But Jeff Gordon added his seal of approval at Darlington and suggested the media "settle down" when it comes pressing the point on Letarte.
"It was a week ago that Chad and Alan signed and nobody was asking any questions about Stevie," Gordon said. "He's going to be signed. Everything is going really good."
Although the No. 24 team is currently sixth in the point standings -- and was leading the points after 10 races last season -- Gordon believes the team is the strongest its been in a long time. The four-time champ admits it was up to him to accept some of the responsibility for the team not performing up to expectation.
"It's confidence in one another and seeing the commitment from one another," Gordon said. "It's important for me to step up and show my commitment from how much time I spend with him talking about things and the engineers and the team as well as being in the gym and doing all the things that you have to do to show that you're going to give as much as the team is giving and that Steve is giving, and vice-versa with him as well. And that's what builds your communication because that is ultimately the most important thing.
"So, if I was trying to get him signed he would have been signed already. It's a process that goes on at Hendrick Motorsports and I'm not really involved with it."
What's new is old again
Kyle Busch generated plenty of positive press after his win last week at Richmond. He claimed to be different from "the old Kyle Busch (who) would have folded" when his car dialed out during the race compared to "the new one (who) stuck in there."
"I got a lot of stories this week out of that remark," Busch said. "So my job’s done."
Denny Hamlin found his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate’s comments comical.
"There is no new Kyle," Hamlin quipped. "That’s just a complete myth. Every time he wins you all say, ‘It’s the new Kyle’ and whenever he loses you say it’s the same, ‘it’s the same ol’ Kyle.’
"Half of my entertainment in this sport comes from Kyle Busch so I love having him as a teammate."
When Busch was asked about Hamlin’s response, he replied, "There you have it. I think I’ve proved my point here walking up to you."
As Hamlin predicted, the more familiar Busch reappeared Friday. First, after he was asked about his Sprint Cup car, "What’s there to be excited about? I’ve got a (freaking) wrecked piece of (crap)." Later on, during the Nationwide Series race, he complained, "I hate this freakin’ track."
Say what?
Jimmie Johnson on not winning in the last five races:
"We’re all kind of massaging our packages and I hope that we get what we need out of the No. 48 car soon so we can get back to Victory Lane."
