It’s just practice, but the opening track session for the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs was evidence that a new stage of the season had begun.
There were a couple of statements made on Saturday in both practice and qualifications for the Southern 500 but also instances that showed how drivers and teams will begin to maximize every opportunity to find speed over the next 10 weeks.
For example, playoff drivers Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin will lead the field to green on Sunday night at Darlington Raceway with championship-eligible drivers taking nine of the top-10 starting positions and 10 of the top-11.
1. Christopher Bell
2. Denny Hamlin
3. Tyler Reddick
4. Ryan Blaney
5. Brad Keselowski
6. Joey Logano
7. Kevin Harvick
8. Chris Buescher
9. Michael McDowell
11. Kyle Busch
23. William Byron
25. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
27. Ross Chastain
31. Martin Truex Jr.
There are some surprises there too, of course, especially Truex, who hit the wall in practice before putting that subpar lap together. Busch also hit the wall in practice and changed a toe link in qualifying and likely will be sent to the rear of the field at the start of the race as a penalty for unapproved adjustments.
Truex, but also poor qualifying William Byron, have a significant margin of error in this first round as the top-seeded drivers at the start of the Round of 16. There isn’t a great imperative to score stage points in this first round, but they don’t want to start a cascade of problems to overcome either.
It’s not all bad news for Byron, or even for poor qualifying Stenhouse as well, as both drivers showed long run speed in practice. In fact, while pole sitting Bell had the fastest 10-consecutive-lap average in practice, Byron was second, and Stenhouse was fifth.
They’re just both going to have to overcome the detriments of dirty air over the course of that first stage with a car that is still notoriously difficult to pass with, even at Darlington. Kyle Larson was fastest on long runs altogether with the best 15, 20, and 25 consecutive lap averages but, like Byron and Stenhouse, will have to overcome dirty air with the 18th starting position.
Overall, Bell is really poised for a good night with a pole position, but really, all the playoff drivers with the exception of Busch and Truex, had really productive Saturdays as they all look to start the next 10 weeks with positive momentum.
“It definitely feels good,” Bell said. “Darlington is a place that’s notoriously hard to pass, so starting up front is a really big deal. But, with that being said, it’s an extremely long race. The Southern 500 is in my opinion probably harder than the Coca-Cola 600 just because of the race track that we’re at. Very long time tomorrow so starting position has no indication of where we’re going to finish, but we certainly have the speed to compete and hopefully we can keep it up front all day.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.