The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
Jul. 8, 2016
What to Watch: Friday
by The Frontstretch Staff
On Thursday night, William Byron took the lead during the final caution when Timothy Peters had a mishap in the pits. The 18-year old then held off charges from John Hunter Nemechek and Daniel Hemric to claim his fourth win of the year in the Buckle Up in Your Truck 225. Nemechek was second, followed by Hemric, Christopher Bell and Johnny Sauter. Read more
Records and facts
In last year's race, Kyle Busch led a race-high 163 laps. However, the event came down to a duel between him and Joey Logano. Busch ran down the Team Penske driver and passed him with 20 laps to go. From there, Busch pulled away to take the win over Logano. It was a 1-3-4-5 finish for Joe Gibbs Racing as Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth rounded out the top 5.
There have only been five Sprint Cup races at Kentucky Speedway. These races have been won by three drivers. Both Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski have two victories a piece at Kentucky Speedway. Matt Kenseth is the only other driver to win, claiming victory in 2013 when the race was postponed to Sunday afternoon due to rain.
Track Facts
Track / Race Length: 1.5-mile tri-oval, 267 laps (400.5 miles)
Banking: 17 degrees in turns 1-2, 14 degrees in turns 3-4
Frontstretch: 1,662 ft., banked 10 degrees
Backstretch: 1,600 ft., banked 4 degrees
Grandstand Seating: 107,000
Pit Road Speed: 45 mph
Pace Car Speed: 55 mph
Opened: 2000, first Cup race in 2011
Website: http://www.kentuckyspeedway.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kentuckyspeedway
Twitter: http://twitter.com/kyspeedway
Remaining Pre-Race Schedule:
Happy Hour: Friday, July 8, 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. on NBC Sports App
Say What?!
"I think it's too early in the process to know what the character of the track is going to be, but it'll be your typical new asphalt type race. You're going to want to stay in the groove and the restarts are going to be challenging. New tires are going to be challenging. I think you're going to have all of those same characteristics. It's a pretty big difference in how you enter turn one and how you enter turn three, so just getting the balance between the two corners is definitely going to be the hardest part.
"You won't leave with a headache. That's the best part about it, in my opinion. Before, the drainage was probably the biggest issue in terms of drying the racetrack, not losing track time and making the fans sit around for no reason. I think that part of it is important and they did a great job with that and fixed that. Really putting in the effort and the money to do something like this is really exciting and shows the commitment that Kentucky Speedway and (Speedway Motorsports Inc.) have. It's different. We run in a lot places that have new asphalt – Kansas being one of those places and Michigan being one of those places, especially since we just ran there with this same aero package – where you figure out what you can do. It's going to take a little time for everyone to get a handle on it." - Kevin Harvick
"The bumps were extremely bad at Kentucky – it was rough. The corners were great, and I think a lot of drivers would have liked to keep the corners 'as is,' just because they were aged and slick, and provided a lot of opportunity and different lines to run. But, the front straightaway was pretty severe and no amount of grinding was really going to improve things. I'm sure it's a great surface. All of the tracks that have been repaved recently have been very smooth and very well-done. They also used a new process to develop a coarse asphalt to increase the aging process, or at least the track will hopefully age quicker. I'm excited to go there and check it out. For the first couple of races, the asphalt is going to have a lot of grip, so the cars are going to run in a narrow groove and passing may be a bit of a challenge, but as the track ages, it should be incredible." - Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
"Kentucky will be completely new with the repave. We'll have some test data from when we tested there a couple weeks ago. I remember being there last year for XFINITY and I liked the character that the place had. It was a little rough, but no worse than a lot of places we go to. So, everything's up in the air. But we're all in the same boat. We're all going to see it for the first time and wonder what we did right in how well it drives right off the truck or what we did wrong to try to get around the race track that is now smooth and has more banking.
"I like the character in these race tracks. A lot of these places we go to are a lot of fun just because the asphalt has aged. There is a limit between asphalt losing grip and just having bumps that are hard to handle. When it gets to the point where you can't get around a race track because of bumps, sometimes something does have to be done." - Chris Buescher
Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager and a Senior Writer for Frontstretch.com. He can be reached via e-mail at ashland10@mail.com.
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by the Frontstretch Staff
by Kevin Rutherford
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Q: Speaking of Kurt Busch's rookie year in trucks, partway through the season, his sponsorship situation changed and Roush Racing was forced to take on co-sponsors on Busch's truck. What happened to Exide Batteries, his primary sponsor at the beginning of the season?
Thursday's Answer:
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