NASCAR’S new rules package hits another short track

BRISTOL, Tenn. — NASCAR’S second stop at a short track this season is yet another race that’s impossible to predict. There’s a new rules package, a traction strip around Bristol Motor Speedway and the general crankiness that short-track racing tends to produce.

Moods were mixed following Saturday’s final practice and defending race winner Kyle Busch was less than pleased with how conditions are coming together. He was the fastest Toyota driver of the session, fifth overall, but got prickly when asked how he expected Sunday’s race to go under NASCAR’S high-downforce rules package.

“I think you’re going to run or try to run wherever you can where the guy in front of you ain’t because you certainly can’t follow,” said Busch, adding his car was “plowing tight. Aerotight at Bristol. At a short track. Fantastic. Can’t wait.”

NASCAR raced two weeks ago at Martinsville Speedway, the shortest track on the NASCAR circuit at 0.526 mile, and a track that typically forces drivers to gouge their way through the field. But the race did not live up to expectations and Brad Keselowski won AUTO RACING in a runaway — he led all but 54 laps and was passed on the track only by Chase Elliott.

Busch warned that Bristol might be much of the same because of a rules package that emphasizes high downforce — one he’s been dubious about since NASCAR said last year it was making radical changes.

“That’s exactly what we told everybody,” he said with a smirk.

Joey Logano cautioned that Bristol’s 0.533-mile, highbanked, all-concrete bullring is so different from the paperclip layout at Martinsville, that it would take an effort such as Keselowski’s to repeat that race. Keselowski’s strong Ford had clean air down the long straightaways and into the flat, narrow turns, and that contributed to the underwhelming race.

“You get a good car up front that can control the pace, especially at a place like Martinsville ... if you get lead you get more air cooling your brakes, you can run the pace that you want to and you have everything cooler than the guy that was chasing you the whole time and you’re able to drive away,” he said.

Logano doesn’t believe the leader at Bristol will be able to pull away the same way Keselowski did at Martinsville.

“Here the advantage is probably cut down some because you have traffic within the first 20 laps of a run,” Logano said. “You’re going to catch (lapped cars) pretty quick, so that clean-air advantage that you have will go away and that will keep the second, third, fifth-place cars all closer.”

Bell earns bonus with Xfinity Series win

Christopher Bell earned his first career Bristol Motor Speedway victory and a $100,000 bonus with the Xfinity Series win.

Bell got his second victory of the season, his 10th in 48 starts, by passing Brandon Jones with 17 laps remaining. Jones had a tire issue that sent him to the wall and then to pit road, and Bell didn’t have another challenger in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

Sato grabs pole at Barber Motorsports Park

Takuma Sato, teammate Graham Rahal and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing outshined the powerhouse teams at Barber Motorsports Park. In qualifying, at least. Sato claimed the eighth pole of his career on Saturday and the first since Pocono in 2017, and Rahal had the secondfastest qualifying time for Sunday’s Indy Grand Prix of Alabama.

“Before qualifying, we never thought we could lock into the front row,” said Japan’s Sato, the 2017 Indianapolis 500 winner. “We knew it could be competitive.”

It is the first time a Bobby Rahal team has had a 1-2 start since 2005 at Chicagoland, with Danica Patrick and Buddy Rice.

“You’re talking a long time ago,” Graham Rahal said.

Graham Rahal is a New Albany native.

Team Penske was shut out of the Fast Six qualifying group for the first time since Long Beach in 2014, and Andretti Autosport also didn’t have a driver make it that far.