By Caleb Whisler, Staff Writer
The second set of Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers were able to feel the rhythm and feel the rhyme on the road course at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Drivers who participated in the test were Jamie McMurray, Austin Dillon, Trevor Bayne, Aric Almirola, Ryan Blaney, Ty Dillon, Clint Bowyer, Kyle Busch, Erik Jones, Joey Logano, William Byron, AJ Allmendinger and Alex Bowman. Chris Buescher, who participated in the test on Tuesday, July 10, drove the Chevrolet wheel force car.
The morning session saw two spins by Bowman and Blaney in Turn 3. Bowman was able to continue after the team changed the splitter due to contact with the tire barrier. Blaney went to a backup car after he tagged the tire barrier multiple times.
https://twitter.com/caleb_whisler/status/1019220836748840966
Ryan Blaney spins and hits the tire wall. #ROVAL pic.twitter.com/iLA4jEOigR
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) July 17, 2018
After a couple of hours being run by drivers, officials at Charlotte Motor Speedway and NASCAR determined that it would be in the best interest to remove the rumble strips from Turn 8 going into Oval Turn 1.
In the afternoon session, Byron was heading into Turn 1 when his brakes failed. The Cup rookie went into the tire barrier and suffered extensive damage. The team did not pull out the backup car.
Significant contact for William Byron in the No. 24 entering Turn 1 in @CLTMotorSpdwy testing. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/3SkLEpTPZj
— Zack Albert (@zack_albert) July 17, 2018
During the session, Allmendinger, Busch and Logano were the only three drivers to top the 106 mph mark during the day,
However, the biggest issue was not with action on the track, but with the tire compound brought to the test by Goodyear. After last week’s session, Goodyear noticed that the tire they brought was chunking. In today’s session, they brought an alternate tire, which is a tougher compound than what was tested in the spring.
Goodyear released the following statement from Mark Keto, project manager for NASCAR:
“Because we saw some of the things we saw during one of NASCAR’s open tests at the Charlotte road course last week, we decided to bring an alternate tire for teams to try at the end of day two, which was the control tire from our spring test here and has a slightly tougher compound than what we brought to our open tests. Bringing the alternate tire gives us an additional data point from which to work. We’ve had some extreme heat and track temperatures that we’ve tested under over these past two sessions, and that could be contributing to this situation, along with the way the cars going over the curbs and rumble strips as they search for the fastest way around this course. As we do after every test or on-track session, we will study all the data we’ve collected and come up with our best race recommendation.”
Here are what drivers said following the session:
“It’s a different type of race track,” said Allmendinger. “It’s unique and that’s what this is all about for us. It’s a different challenge for all of us drivers. … To have something different, especially going into the playoffs, to bring a different excitement level to the sport and to the series (is great). It’s something else to talk about and more than anything for us drivers to go out there and experience it is something that we need.
“Through the infield, it’s fairly narrow. Through the infield, I think there’s going to be contact. Every time I go in there, my eyes are wide open and I know I’ve got to hit my marks.”
“I think the race track is fun,” Logano said. “It’s different than any other road course we go to, which I don’t think is a bad thing in any way. There are three distinctive, different types of race tracks when it comes to road courses in the Cup Series. It will be an interesting little race to see how it goes. … . I would say the most challenging part honestly is getting through the race. You can get decent speed, but at some point, there’s going to be a caution and strategies are going to change and you’re going to see the fastest cars be in 15th or 20th like you do at road courses. You’re probably going to see something like that. You may see some fast cars get torn up, so honestly I think finishing this thing is Priority No. 1. Do that and you probably have a pretty good shot at winning.
“I think the fact that a fan can sit in the grandstands and see everything is your coolest part about this. The fact that you can sit there and you can watch road course racing without (the cars) going out of view, that is pretty neat.”