NEWTON, Iowa – Five drivers had tire problems and two will move to backup cars after Friday’s 50-minute practice session for Cup cars at Iowa Speedway.
Christopher Bell and Austin Cindric will each move to backup cars for Sunday night’s first Cup race at this ⅞-mile track after a right front tire blew and crashed into the wall during practice.
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All the tire problems happened about twenty laps into a run.
“What’s even more concerning and makes it much more confusing is the fact that we had three cars here in a tire test doing 50 laps and none of us blew a tire,” Bell said. ‘So I do not know. But yes, it is very, very alarming and there are warning signs everywhere that we had so many tire problems today.”
Bell competed in a tire mounting test with Kyle Larson and Brad Keselowski on May 28. The speeds on Friday were higher than what those three ran during the test.
Cindric said of the tire problems: “We certainly weren’t one of the few teams with tire problems, but it certainly seems like there are some limitations. It was a good lesson to learn perhaps before the race, but there is a lot of work for the team to prepare for qualifying (Saturday). It’s a shame, but I’m glad we have time to get one ready for qualifying.”
Ty Gibbs and Tyler Reddick each had a flat right front tire. Ross Chastain had a left rear tire that went flat. None of these cars hit the wall.
Noah Gragson was the fastest during the practice session with a lap of 217.988 km/h. He was followed by Gibbs (136.559 mph), Alex Bowman (136.334), Justin Haley (136.269) and Chase Elliott (135.811).
“Being a new repave it definitely created some challenges and a guessing game in this race, but I felt good in the Ford Performance simulator and it felt very close to how we solved in real life,” said Gragson . “We were a bit loose and got better and better during practice. I started off quite loose, but once we got that under control it felt like the car had a lot of speed and then came into the garage.
“Obviously he has a lot of speed, so I’m really excited to see what we can do with it here for qualifying. There’s still a long way to go this weekend, but the car feels pretty good and everyone in this Bass Pro/Winchester team has been working hard. We’ve been in a bit of a slump over the last four or five weeks since Darlington, but we’ve got a really fast race car and continue to work well together and it’s a good place for us to try and turn the tide. ”
Qualifying starts at . 1pm ET Saturday on USA Network.
