Ryan Blaney climbs into his car in the garage area during a previous NASCAR Cup Series race weekend. Photo: Sean Gardner/Getty Images
Lower-than-recommended tire pressures and aggressive camber combined to cause issues with left rear tires during both sessions of final NASCAR Cup Series practice on Saturday afternoon at Kansas Speedway.
Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin and Chris Buescher all had flat left rears during the “A” group session.
Blaney and Hamlin were able to keep their cars away from the wall. Buescher wasn’t as fortunate. His No. 17 Roush Fenway Keselowski Ford suffered extensive damage from a hard hit against the outside SAFER barrier at the 1.5-mile track.
“I lost the left rear going down the frontstretch,” said Buescher, whose team rolled out a backup car. “I guess, on corner entry, I started feeling a vibration, tried to slow down and didn’t get it knocked down in time.
“…It’s going to be a long night.”
Both Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Joey Logano pounded the outside wall during the “B” group session. Stenhouse, who was running near the fence, backed into the outside wall. Logano spun and pancaked the driver’s side of his No. 22 Ford.
“As soon as I turned down off into the corner, I could feel the shaking, and I knew it was bad,” said Logano, who will start from the rear in a backup car on Sunday. “We’ll be all right. We’ll fight through it. I think we were pretty decent in lap times before that, I believe, on long hauls, at least.
“If we keep the tires on it, I guess we’ll be all right.”
Tire maker Goodyear recommended 22 pounds of pressure in the left rears. Teams typically opt for lower pressures in an attempt to improve mechanical grip.
Tyler Reddick Hopes To Find Speed Near The Wall At Kansas
The consensus among NASCAR Cup Series drivers is that Kansas Speedway bears greatest similarity to Las Vegas when it comes to comparisons between 1.5-mile intermediate track.
Second-place qualifier Tyler Reddick, on the other hand, sees a kinship between Kansas and Homestead-Miami Speedway, and that suits him just fine. After all, Reddick won both his NASCAR Xfinity Series championships (2018 and 2019) by winning the season finale at Homestead.
And, like Homestead, Kansas affords Reddick the opportunity to run the line he prefers — up against the wall.
“In a lot of ways, with how much grip that this place has throughout the run and the lack of fall-off, you need to be comfortable running the wall like you do at Homestead,” Reddick said before Saturday’s practice for the AdventHealth 400. “I feel like you don’t have to be quite as close to the wall to still get some of the aero effects and be running a good lap and a good time.
“It is a lot like Vegas in some ways, too. The temperatures (at Kansas) are going to kind of warmer than we had at Vegas. Who knows what happens Sunday, weather-wise and everything like that? As it cools off, maybe more lanes open up, and the bottom catches up and the middle catches up.”
But Reddick will be content if the top lane continues to be the dominant one on Sunday.
NASCAR Cup Series
Kansas Speedway – Kansas City, KS
AdventHealth 400 – May 15, 2022
Sunday’s Starting Line Up
Pos Car Driver Team Time Speed
1. 20 Christopher Bell Rheem Toyota 30.071 179.575
2. 8 Tyler Reddick BetMGM Chevrolet 30.192 178.855
3. 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 30.206 178.772
4. 2 Austin Cindric # Menards/Monster Ford 30.261 178.448
5. 45 Kurt Busch Jordan Brand Toyota 30.276 178.359
6. 18 Kyle Busch M&M’s Crunchy Cookie Toyota 30.340 177.983
7. 10 Aric Almirola Smithfield Ford 30.355 177.895
8. 48 Alex Bowman Ally Chevrolet 30.411 177.567
9. 19 Martin Truex, Jr. Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota 30.606 176.436
10. 12 Ryan Blaney Wabash Ford 30.618 176.367
11. 1 Ross Chastain Advent Health Chevrolet 30.513 176.974
12. 14 Chase Briscoe Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford 30.530 176.875
13. 24 William Byron RaptorTough.com Chevrolet 30.553 176.742
14. 9 Chase Elliott UniFirst Chevrolet 30.570 176.644
15. 31 Justin Haley LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet 30.617 176.373
16. 41 Cole Custer HaasTooling.com/PAG Ford 30.676 176.033
17. 42 Ty Dillon Chevyliners.com Chevrolet 30.692 175.942
18. 11 Denny Hamlin Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota 30.701 175.890
19. 99 Daniel Suarez CommScope Chevrolet 30.706 175.861
20. 7 Corey LaJoie Garner Trucking Inc. Chevrolet 30.743 175.650
21. 3 Austin Dillon Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Off Road 30.749 175.615
22. 43 Erik Jones FOCUSfactor Chevrolet 30.759 175.558
23. 4 Kevin Harvick Busch Light #ForTheFarmers Ford 30.762 175.541
24. 23 Bubba Wallace McDonald’s Toyota 30.822 175.200
25. 34 Michael McDowell Love’s Travel Stops Ford 30.885 174.842
26. 21 Harrison Burton # DEX Imaging Ford 30.970 174.362
27. 15 J.J. Yeley(i) Diagnostic Imaging Centers Ford 31.013 174.121
28. 16 Noah Gragson(i) Chevrolet Chevrolet 31.457 171.663
29. 51 Cody Ware Nurtec ODT Ford 31.467 171.608
30. 6 Brad Keselowski King’s Hawaiian Ford 31.644 170.648
31. 38 Todd Gilliland # First Phase Credit Card Ford 31.701 170.342
32. 78 B.J. McLeod General Formulations Ford 32.096 168.245
33. 77 Josh Bilicki(i) UACC/Support Ukraine Chevrolet 32.106 168.193
34. 22 Joey Logano Verizon 5G Ford 0.000 0.000
35. 17 Chris Buescher Castrol GTX Full Synthetic Ford 0.000 0.000
36. 47 Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. Dillons/Louisiana Hot Sauce Chevrolet 0.000 0.000
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
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