Some NASCAR Cup Drivers Have Issues In Dover Practice

William Byron, seen here from an earlier test session, will start Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover Motor Speedway from 33rd position. Photo: James Gilbert/Getty Images

Four drivers did not make NASCAR Cup Series qualifying laps for Sunday’s race at Dover Motor Speedway on Saturday.

William Byron, rookies Todd Gilliland and Harrison Burton and Josh Bilicki all had incidents during practice and will go to back-up cars for the race.

Byron, a two-race winner in 2022, had an incident in the opening minutes of his practice session and hit the wall hard enough that his team immediately knew they would need to prepare a back-up car. He will start 33rd among the 36 cars.

“Just hate it for our guys more than anything,” said Byron, who is ranked third in the championship standings.

“Have to pull out a back-up car obviously. The primary was probably going to be really fast and I know our back-up car can be just as fast and we can still go and try to win on Sunday. But just a little bit over-confident on my end (in the accident).”

Gilliland and Bilicki made contact with the wall early in the opening practice. Byron and Burton had their trouble in the second practice session. Tyler Reddick, spun twice in that session but did not need to go to a second car. He will start 26th.

Back Home Again For Truex, Jr.

Dover Motor Speedway is a special place to Martin Truex, Jr. It’s the New Jersey native’s “home track” and also the place where the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion fittingly earned his first premier series victory in 2007.

Truex joins Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick as three-time Dover race winners – most among active drivers in the series.

“Having experience around this track brings confidence to know what you might want is important, but we only have 20 minutes (of practice) to figure that out – figure out how to get that in the car and not have a lot of ability to change the big things,’’ said Truex, who qualified 18th.

Kyle Busch’s Future

Two-time former NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch was asked about comments he made last week saying he was unsure of his future with the Joe Gibbs Racing team. He is in the middle of negotiating a new contract with the team and last week deferred reporters’ questions about his status to the team.

Asked on Saturday if he’s had any more talk with JGR in the last week, Busch said, “yeah, there were some discussions and such,” adding, “There is nothing to elaborate on, it’s all good.”

Busch, a three-time Dover winner, will start 10th.

Ross Chastain Off To A Great Start

Ross Chastain has earned his first two NASCAR Cup Series race victories in just the past five weeks – a career first win at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas’ road course on March 27 and answered it with a win on the series’ biggest track, Talladega Superspeedway last weekend.

Both Chastain’s wins came on last lap passes. It’s been quite a season debut for Chastain with the Trackhouse Racing team. And Chastain, who had a reputation for a more aggressive racing style earlier in this career, says he’s learned from that and made an effort to race differently.

“It’s all about being there at the end,” said Chastain, who is ninth in the championship. “There were opportunities in both of those races to take ourselves out and it didn’t happen. Now there have been other races this year that small mistakes added up to us not winning and we had the same opportunity to.

“I’m not perfect. I’m human. There’s mistakes and we’ve had a great start to the season and stats look great, but there’s mistakes in there that I’ve also learned from this year. Continue to evolve that is tough. I mean, this is the best group of race car drivers in the world, in my opinion. Any mistake and they exploit it.”

Inspection Update

Only one car had issues during pre-qualifying inspection for Sunday’s race. The No. 42 Petty GMS Motorsports Chevrolet driven by Ty Dillon failed inspection twice, costing the team pit selection. One crew member was also ejected for the race.

NASCAR Cup Series
Dover Motor Speedway – Dover, DE
DuraMAX Drydene 400 – May 1, 2022

Sunday’s Starting Line Up

Pos Car Driver Team Time Speed
1. 17 Chris Buescher Fastenal Ford 22.479 160.149
2. 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Office Toyota 22.536 159.744
3. 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 22.552 159.631
4. 9 Chase Elliott NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet 22.609 159.229
5. 12 Ryan Blaney Menards/Jack Links Ford 22.617 159.172
6. 48 Alex Bowman Ally Chevrolet 22.626 159.109
7. 1 Ross Chastain Pitbull Tour 2022 Chevrolet 22.643 158.990
8. 99 Daniel Suarez CommScope Chevrolet 22.708 158.534
9. 23 Bubba Wallace leidos Toyota 22.810 157.826
10. 18 Kyle Busch M&M’s Crunchy Cookie Toyota 22.859 157.487
11. 4 Kevin Harvick Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford 22.547 159.666
12. 2 Austin Cindric # Freightliner Ford 22.592 159.348
13. 15 Ryan Preece(i) United Rentals Ford 22.620 159.151
14. 31 Justin Haley LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet 22.631 159.074
15. 47 Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. Kroger/The Frozen Farmer Chevrolet 22.640 159.011
16. 45 Kurt Busch Monster Energy Toyota 22.645 158.975
17. 20 Christopher Bell DeWalt Toyota 22.647 158.961
18. 19 Martin Truex, Jr. Bass Pro Shops Toyota 22.682 158.716
19. 16 A.J. Allmendinger(i) Action Industries Chevrolet 22.684 158.702
20. 6 Brad Keselowski Kohler Generators Ford 22.695 158.625
21. 7 Corey LaJoie DuraMAX/Drydene Chevrolet 22.705 158.555
22. 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 22.734 158.353
23. 14 Chase Briscoe Mahindra Tractors Ford 22.741 158.304
24. 3 Austin Dillon BREZTRI Chevrolet 22.773 158.082
25. 43 Erik Jones FOCUSfactor Chevrolet 22.791 157.957
26. 8 Tyler Reddick Guaranteed Rate Chevrolet 22.833 157.667
27. 10 Aric Almirola Smithfield/Weis Ford 22.858 157.494
28. 51 Cody Ware Nurtec ODT Ford 22.895 157.240
29. 34 Michael McDowell Navage Nasal Care Ford 22.905 157.171
30. 41 Cole Custer Autodesk/HaasTooling.com Ford 23.018 156.399
31. 42 Ty Dillon Chevyliners.com Chevrolet 23.190 155.239
32. 78 B.J. McLeod Superior Logistics Services Ford 23.803 151.241
33. 24 William Byron RaptorTough.com Chevrolet 0.000 0.000
34. 38 Todd Gilliland # The Pete Store Ford 0.000 0.000
35. 21 Harrison Burton # DEX Imaging Ford 0.000 0.000
36. 77 Josh Bilicki(i) Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet 0.000 0.000