Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway will be the first test of a new rules package for Sprint Cup cars, and based on the preliminary results, some of the top drivers from 2014 will be fast again this year.
Joey Logano, who was one of the final four in the Chase last year, comes into the race as the polesitter. Defending Cup champion Kevin Harvick qualified second, but he’ll start from the back of the pack after blowing the engine in his No. 4 Chevrolet during Saturday’s final practice session, not long after he posted the fastest lap of the day.
Harvick said afterward that he wasn’t too concerned about a back-row starting spot. “If we were going to have something happen, this is a good place to have it happen because you can pass,” he said.
And he’ll have plenty of company in the back at the start, as some of the sport’s top drivers, including Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart, will be back there with him after their cars didn’t get through inspection on Friday and they weren’t allowed to participate in time trials.
“It will just make for a better show,” Harvick said.
Nonetheless, the defending champ said he’s confident about his speed during the race.
“(Logano) has probably been the fastest in a single-car run, but I feel really good about our car on the long haul and that’s what matters,” Harvick said.
Defending race winner Kasey Kahne also looked strong after posting the second-best time Saturday.
Carl Edwards, who was fifth-fastest in Happy Hour, said he considers himself the favorite in the 500.
“It’s us,” he said. “We’re fast, and I love this place. We’re here to win.”
It seems that the reductions in horsepower and downforce aren’t translating into significantly slower speeds at AMS. The drivers are making up for the lost speeds on the straightaways by driving faster through the corners. And the reduction in downforce is being offset by the air being so much cooler than it was in September.
“When you slow them down going down the straightaway, they’re going to get faster through the center of the corner,” Harvick said. “The car is probably making 8 or 9 percent more downforce just because it’s 40 to 50 degrees cooler than when we were here last year. So that’s really one of the biggest reasons that the speeds are up.
One of the biggest changes for drivers since last year is that Sprint Cup drivers now can adjust the track bar during a race.
Some drivers have their track-bar button mounted on the steering wheel. Others, such as Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray, have it mounted on the brace next to their right leg.
There’s also a lot of difference among drivers as to how much they plan to utilize the new option during races. Harvick said he plans to use his a lot.
“I used it every practice and every time on the race track,” he said.
Jeff Gordon said he didn’t expect to use his that much, especially after pushing the button inadvertently during practice. And he pointed out that there are a lot of other components springs and shocks and the adjustments of them that affect how a car drives.
More important, he said, is that NASCAR racing has advanced so much that the tuning of suspension components is not as big a factor as in the past.
“Everything you do today is about body attitude and aerodynamics,” Gordon said. “And that outweighs a lot of the mechanical grip things and tools you can use inside the car.
“Sometimes making that adjustment with the track bar can only hurt some of those other things instead of helping you. I really look at it as a tool for when you need something fairly major to happen.
“Other than that I don’t plan on adjusting it much.”
Edwards also said he’s leery of using his track-bar adjuster.
“I think that’s going to be an opportunity for us drivers to screw ourselves up more than it is to help us,” he said, adding that he’s worried about inadvertently adjusting his car during the race. “That could be disastrous. … I probably will not mess with mine too much.”
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