Expect the unexpected at Atlanta
Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images
HAMPTON, Ga.—Now that NASCAR’s new Monster Energy Cup Series aero package is on the track, what can fans expect at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday?
After one practice and qualifying on Friday, that’s still the great unknown.
Aric Almirola, who won the pole for the Folds of Honor QuickTrip 500 with a speed of 181.473 mph, was simply relieved to top qualifying for just the second time in his career.
“Honestly, the car that the guys brought, we were good right off the truck,” Almirola said. “We were second in practice, and we carried that speed through qualifying. In that final round, we knew that a second lap was going to be faster than the first.
“That first lap, we kind of decided to throw that lap away and work on building the speed up. That second lap just really executed and hit all my marks perfectly and was able to be good enough and had a really fast lap to get the pole which is really cool because I haven’t done it in like seven years. That was pretty neat.”
Still, Almirola is unsure what the complexion of Sunday’s race will be. And he’s not alone. His Stewart-Haas Racing teammate, Clint Bowyer, led the first two rounds of qualifying but came up .180 seconds short. He’ll roll off third behind Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.
“It was a good effort,” Bowyer said. “A good effort for everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing. It is good to get off on the right foot. Certainly, the speed is in the race car. I don't know what that means for the race.
“I do believe that we were the fastest car all day long, and they were going to have to do something and they formulated a good plan to beat us.”
Following the three Fords in time trials was Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin. Daniel Suarez, Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr., and Austin Dillon rounded out the top 10.
While three of the SHR Fords were among the top-five in qualifying, defending Atlanta winner Kevin Harvick described Friday’s exercises as “a complete waste of time for us.” SHR’s alpha driver had steering issues in practice, completed two laps and parked the car. Harvick’s qualifying effort was marred by the same issue.
“The car won’t steer,” said Harvick, who finished 18th after two rounds. “It won’t turn to the right. We can’t figure out what is wrong with the steering to make it go straight. It has been a bit of a challenge today. We haven’t really made any laps that you can actually turn the car. We were kind of just hoping for the best there and it didn’t fix any of it.”
Despite Almirola’s success, he’s still curious with how the car will perform. With the age of the Atlanta asphalt, tire fall off will be an issue on Sunday. The increased on-throttle time due to less horsepower could result in additional stops for fuel.
“With this new package, there's going to be a lot of risk versus reward with building speed into your car because then you sacrifice handling,” Almirola said. “It is going to be really hard and a very tall task to trim your car out and have speed and still have it driving good.
“If you make your car drive good it probably won’t handle very good. If you make it handle good it probably won’t be very fast. That is the challenge that the teams and engineers and drivers are faced with this package. Trying to find raw speed without sacrificing handling.”
Still, Almirola attributed Friday’s success to the organization’s extensive work on the new Mustang and aero package. No matter what challenges arise, he’s confident that SHR has the resources to handle it.
“We're going to have a lot more opportunities,” Almirola said. “Everybody at SHR is building incredible race cars. It doesn't matter what rules they throw at us. At the end of the day, it's about people. That is one of the things that impresses me the most about our organization. You give 400 really talented employees a challenge with a new race car, with a Ford Mustang, and a new rules package from NASCAR and they just go to work. They put their head down and go to work and figure out how to make everything work to make the cars go fast.
“That has blown me away in my year and couple months that I have been there with how dedicated those employees are. All 400 employees at making race cars go fast. That is what they wake up every morning to do.”
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