Bristol, TN: Coming into the day at Bristol, there was a sense of uncertainty in the garage.
When the cars took to the track for the first time on Thursday afternoon, would the track be okay? Would they go too fast? Would they be safe?
A week ago, Parker Price-Miller pondered why the World of Outlaws as a series was even going to the .526-mile asphalt track covered in dirt.
Drivers and tour officials were originally scheduling a meeting to be held on Thursday night to discuss any changes that needed to be made to the track or their cars.
However, after drivers and teams made their way around the racing surface 30 or 40 times, the tension eased.
“I feel way better today then I did coming into it,” David Gravel told Matt Weaver of Autoweek. “The track got a little rough in three and four, but one and two got really nice. The track got wide. We were able to use most of the race track.”
The atmosphere did a 180 between the start of the session at 6:00 p.m. ET and the ending of it at 9:00 p.m.
“It wasn’t as bad as what I thought it (would be),” Logan Schuchart said. “Going down the straightaway, you can tell you’re going pretty fast. It would be pretty catastrophic if something happened. Hoping that doesn’t happen for everybody, but I felt good in the car.”
The cars being on the race track fixed more problems than someone might imagine.
Gravel ended up sweeping his practice groups through the first two portions of the action. He laid down the quickest time of the cars that went out with him in each of the first four sessions.
He ended the night with a top two finish in each practice session they held. If there was a favorite to win it might be him.
Schuchart progressively moved up the charts as practice went on, ending up second in session four. Donny Schatz ran the quickest lap of the night with a 14.210 in the cars’ first session on track.
Friday night, the drivers will return and do this thing for real. Hot laps are scheduled to begin at 6:00 p.m. ET and the action can be seen live from anywhere in the world on DirtVision.com.
It’s sure to be an exciting event, but that’s just Bristol, baby.
Practice Session 1
1. Donny Schatz 14.210
2. David Gravel 14.286
3. James McFadden 14.388
4. Kyle Larson 14.494
5. Sam Hafertepe Jr. 14.587
6. Paul McMahan 14.596
7. Kraig Kinser 14.605
8. Brad Sweet 14.623
9. Logan Schuchart 14.662
Practice Session 2
1. Gio Scelzi 14.575
2. David Gravel 14.606
3. Tyler Courtney 14.653
4. Kraig Kinser 14.730
5. Logan Schuchart 14.739
6. Brock Zearfoss 14.773
7. Kyle Larson 14.841
8. Sam Hafertepe Jr. 14.868
9. Carson Macedo 14.879
Practice Session 3
1. David Gravel 14.533
2. Donny Schatz 14.759
3. Logan Schuchart 14.913
4. Spencer Bayston 14.949
5. James McFadden 14.964
6. Carson Macedo 14.989
7. Parker Price-Miller 15.060
8. Brad Sweet 15.083
9. Aaron Reutzel 15.085
Practice Session 4
1. David Gravel 14.742
2. Logan Schuchart 14.902
3. Gio Scelzi 14.914
4. Aaron Reutzel 15.014
5. Spencer Bayston 15.060
6. Donny Schatz 15.111
7. Carson Macedo
8. Tyler Courtney 15.129
9. Sheldon Haudenschild 15.134
