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Casey Mears was quickest during Friday's early practice for the Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington Raceway. (John Harrelson/Getty Images Photo) ยป More Photos
Friday’s first round of NASCAR Sprint Cup practice at Darlington Raceway was a brutal affair, as “The Lady In Black” got the better of some of NASCAR’s top drivers and teams.
Two-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson was forced to go to a backup car after he spun his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and backed into the wall at the 1.366-mile speedway. “I just lost it,” said Johnson. “The good news is, though, we know which direction we need to go.”
Among the many cars earning their “Darlington stripes” after making contact with the outside walls were Denny Hamlin, Kyle Petty, David Ragan, Brian Vickers, Clint Bowyer and Reed Sorenson, with at least five other drivers also bouncing off the SAFER barriers ringing the circuit.
Fastest during the early afternoon session was the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of Casey Mears, who had a fast lap of 177.685 miles per hour. Then it was the Dale Earnhardt Inc. Chevy of Martin Truex Jr. at 176.759 mph and Robby Gordon, best of the Dodges at 176.746 mph. Completely the top five were two of Mears’s teammate, Jeff Gordon at 175.817 mph and Jimmie Johnson at 175.509 mph.
The new track surface has made an already challenging track even that much more difficult, with speeds up sharply from years past.
“Darlington is really,
NASCAR Sprint Cup points leader Kyle Busch, driver of one of the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas, agreed and said the high speeds would inhibit side-by-side racing in Saturday night’s Dodge Challenger 500 race.
“It’s really fast,” Busch said of the new surface. “For a race track as narrow as it is and for as hard as it was to get around here already and try to race two-wide it’s going to be that much harder yet in order to try to keep going that fast and run side-by-side. Running side-by-side is really going to slow you down a tremendous amount now, and you’re going to lose too much to the guys in front of you and behind you so you won’t be able to see much of that.”
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