But what really sets him apart as being one of the favorites to win Sunday was being fastest among the nine drivers that completed at least 10-consecutive laps, a measure that indicates a driver is likely to be fast on longer runs when while others slow.
Even though it's been a below-par season for Hamlin, seeing him produce the best speeds should come as no surprise since he's the best active driver in the series at Darlington with 5.8 average finish in 12 starts. He's won on the 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval twice, including last season when he led four times for 124 laps.
“We feel very confident,” Hamlin told NASCAR.com before practice. “We’re going to make the playoffs. We know that. But we want to get a win. We haven‘t gone this deep into the season without winning in a long time. We have some work to do. We have to perform better on race day.”
Kyle Larson, who also led 124 laps at Darlington last season, finished with the second-fastest lap (172.034) following by Brad Keselowski (171.998), Alex Bowman (171.926) and Ryan Newman (171.926).
The interesting thing about the top-five is seeing three Chevrolets stacking the field. Another thing to watch is Newman, who ran the most laps in practice (28), have to win to make the Playoffs with only two regular-season races remaining. Harvick is using his winning Atlanta chassis from February this weekend.
Following Hamlin in best 10-consecutive lap average was Paul Menard, 2014 Darlington winner Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer and three-time Darlington winner Jimmie Johnson, who is also looking for his first win of the season. The seven-time Cup Champion has never gone this far into a season without winning a race.
There was some drama on the track as Jamie McMurray's Camaro began smoking about eight minutes into the session with an apparent engine failure. McMurray will start at the rear of the field if changing the engine on his car.
“Honestly, I didn’t even realize the engine was blowing up,” McMurray told NBCSN. “But then obviously as the oil started pouring out, I caught on.”
The practice session was extended five minutes to account for the lengthy track cleanup because of the oil.
Later, with about 11 minutes left in the practice session, Erik Jones spun as he attempted to get on pit road. The car did not make contact with anything and was not damaged.
Following Hamlin in best 10-consecutive lap average was Paul Menard, 2014 Darlington winner Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer and three-time Darlington winner Jimmie Johnson, who is also looking for his first win of the season. The seven-time Cup Champion has never gone this far into a season without winning a race.
There was some drama on the track as Jamie McMurray's Camaro began smoking about eight minutes into the session with an apparent engine failure. McMurray will start at the rear of the field if changing the engine on his car.
“Honestly, I didn’t even realize the engine was blowing up,” McMurray told NBCSN. “But then obviously as the oil started pouring out, I caught on.”
The practice session was extended five minutes to account for the lengthy track cleanup because of the oil.
Later, with about 11 minutes left in the practice session, Erik Jones spun as he attempted to get on pit road. The car did not make contact with anything and was not damaged.
The best thing of all about the practices were the paint schemes. Wow, do they take us all back a few years. It kind of feels good seeing them too. Nostalgic.
No comments:
Post a Comment