DON’T GET RID OF PRACTICE JUST YET
Some drivers believe NASCAR’s current format proves practice isn’t necessary, that it’s OK to show up and race.
But that’s not a unanimous opinion in the garage area.
“Boy, everyone is getting speeding penalties a lot lately, including myself, and a lot of that is due to no practice,” Joey Logano, the driver of the No. 22 Ford Mustang, said Tuesday. “It’s tough without practice.”
The Cup Series runs its seventh race of the season restart Wednesday at Martinsville (7 p.m., Fox Sports 1). The BlueEmu Maximum Pain Relief 500, like the previous six, will go off without practice.
NASCAR has employed a condensed schedule while making up for races lost during the coronavirus shutdown.
Practice and, in most cases, qualifying have been casualties of the reshaped schedule.
Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr., who combined to win two of the last three Cup Series championships, are winless this season, and both Joe Gibbs Racing drivers said after the Atlanta race Sunday that they miss practice.
“It’s been a little tough not having practice,” Truex said after driving the No. 19 Toyota Camry to third place behind winner Kevin Harvick and Busch.
“You go to the race track with your best guess of what you think is going to work, but it’s not always what you think it’s going to be.”
Busch, who has had a rash of speeding penalties while racing multiple series, said he uses practice time to, well, practice getting on and off pit road at appropriate speeds.
“That’s when I fine-tune things,” the driver of the No. 18 Toyota said, “and this year we just haven’t had that.”
Truex’s third-place finish was his first top-five showing of the season.
Fifth in points, he’s ahead of JGR teammates Denny Hamlin, Busch and Michigan native Erik Jones in the standings.
But six drivers have led more laps than Truex, who has been out front for 183 circuits, and Hamlin, who has two victories, is the only JGR driver who has won a race.
“If you want to win Cup races, these (cars) have to drive the way you want them to,” Truex said. “Everybody doesn’t like the same thing.
“You give a great driver, crew chief, engineer and team an hour to work on a race car, and
they’re going to get it better. We haven’t had a chance to do that.”
Truex is working with a new crew chief. James Small replaced Cole Pearn, who was Truex’s crew chief during the 2017 championship season.
“I’ve been really happy with our cars,” Truex said after scoring his first two stage wins during the Atlanta
race. “I felt like we had a chance to win the Southern 500 (at Darlington), the Coke 600 (at Charlotte) and here (Atlanta).
“We’ve been knocking on the door. It feels like it hasn’t been our season yet. We’re trying to make improvement, but it’s been a little tough not having practice. We’re going to keep chipping away at it.”
Martinsville represents the last weeknight pointspaying race until the series goes to Kansas in late July.
Most races are scheduled
for Saturdays and Sundays through the first week of August.
“We’re going to get back to practice and qualifying at some point,” Truex said.
Truex is the defending Martinsville champion.
“It doesn’t guarantee anything,” the New Jersey native said. “We’ll have to find something that’ll work good off the trailer, because, again, no practice.”
Following Martinsville, the series goes to Homestead-Miami on Sunday.