Mark Martin is off to a fast start at one of NASCAR’s fastest tracks.
Martin posted a fast lap of 189.409 mph in his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet during the first Sprint Cup practice session on Friday, ahead of Kyle Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (189.260).
Kasey Kahne jumped up to third in his Richard Petty Motorsports Ford late in the 90-minute session, and the Chevys of Ryan Newman and Juan Pablo Montoya rounded out the top five.
Busch’s JGR teammate Denny Hamlin rallied with the sixth-fastest lap at the very end – jumping more than 20 spots – and Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, David Ragan and Dale Earnhardt Jr. completed the top 10.
Several notable drivers had disappointing practice results.
Tony Stewart was 22nd, points leader Kevin Harvick was 29th and Jeff Gordon – who had the strongest car at Las Vegas last week – was a surprising 35th.
Next up for the Cup cars is qualifying, which begins at 6:10 p.m. EST tonight.
34 comments
7
Mar 7
31
Mar 7
395
Mar 7
131
Mar 6
1
Mar 6
9
Mar 5
3
Mar 5
Another Hendrick Driver Leads Sprint Cup Practice
34
Mar 5
1
Mar 5
Comments
FIRE STEVE LETARTE
Jeff Gluck Steve Letarte has to go after his dumb gamble last weekend that cost them the race he hasn’t learned a thing Gordon fans are tired of it
by bullsfan24 on Mar 5, 2010 4:20 PM EST reply actions
Practice times
Practice times don’t allow tell the story how things are going to be on sunday. If you remember the days when Jeff Gordon was really bad in Practice then race time came and ran away with it.
by Chris Taitt on Mar 5, 2010 4:20 PM EST reply actions
WOW look at that Practice doesn’t mean a thing, just shows what works and what doesn’t work!
by Chris Taitt on Mar 5, 2010 7:10 PM EST up reply actions
and in the first practice they are struggling thats why Letarte needs to go this is just plain bullshit
by bullsfan24 on Mar 5, 2010 4:21 PM EST reply actions
Who would you want to replace Letarte with?
by Jeff Gluck on Mar 5, 2010 4:27 PM EST up reply actions
You can replace Steve Letarte maybe you can do alot better then him lol watching and listening to Steve Letarte is like watching the Chicago Cubs sometimes I smile and pump my fist in the air then in the bottom of the ninth when they blow it I scream and yell and pound my fist on the table
by bullsfan24 on Mar 5, 2010 4:39 PM EST up reply actions
Some people just don’t get how practice works! You don’t win at practice and it doesn’t pay anything. the reason for practice is find out how the car reacts to different setups so they know how to setup the car for sunday.
by Chris Taitt on Mar 5, 2010 8:47 PM EST up reply actions
Gordon and LeTarte
I was really ticked at LeTarte for not getting 4 tires on that last stop. But then when thinking back how many times have we seen teams like the 48 take only 2 tires and win. It could have gone either way.
by Lindi Bess on Mar 5, 2010 11:40 PM EST up reply actions
I compare Steve Letarte to the Cubs
hes on his game the first half then by mid summer they start to slump in 07 when jeff had a great year he struggled to win and in 08 he wasn’t bad but didn’t win and in 09 seemed like when they go back to the same track towards the fall they struggled like Atlanta Texas Richmond
by bullsfan24 on Mar 5, 2010 4:42 PM EST reply actions
I don’t think Letarte gets worse, I think Jimmie and Chad get better, but I see what you are saying. Not improving on what you have is just as bad as getting worse.
by jshaunburke on Mar 5, 2010 4:45 PM EST up reply actions
I would agree that Letarte is not as good as Gustafson (who many people in the garage say is better than Knaus) or Chad. But I still don’t think he sucks. He just has awesome teammates.
by Jeff Gluck on Mar 5, 2010 5:28 PM EST up reply actions
I think Gustafson is a great crew chief but it seems like Kyle didn’t do anything when they were together. Was it chemistry? Then Mears, but I think we know who to blame there! Maybe Gustafson is a better crew chief, but until he wins 49 races and 4 champsionships, he’s not better than Chad (in my eyes).
I may be the greatest driver to never drive a race car, but unless I drive a race car, we may never know! :-p
by jshaunburke on Mar 5, 2010 5:37 PM EST up reply actions
I hated the call for two tires, him and Jimmie had such a lead over everyone coming onto pit road that they could’ve gone with 4 tires and kept good track position no matter what everyone else did. It was proven by Jimmie coming out 3rd and restarting 4th.
But Letarte’s a good CC, it was just a few years ago that Jeff won 6 races and had a record 30 top tens. It’s easier to learn from bad pit calls than to fire a guy who set up a car that led over 200 laps.
by Robert Turnbull on Mar 5, 2010 5:39 PM EST reply actions
thank you someone else on my side
by Chris Taitt on Mar 5, 2010 5:59 PM EST up reply actions
Way off
In 2007 when Jeff Gordon got 30 yea 30 top 10’s no credit was given to Steve Letarte. The fact of the matter is Jeff Gordon was just as much apart of that call last week as Steve Letarte. So, why not ask for Jeff to be fired! Ok, so here is the deal, if Steve & Jeff decided to take 4 tires and Chad and everyone else 2 tires everyone would have asked for him to be fire anyone, so regardless what they did it would be wrong. Chad and Jimmie are doing much like what Jeff and Ray did back in the day, problem is that was then and this is Now. Move on! Things aren’t going to be the same. If Jeff and Rick Hendrick really felt there was a problem it would be changed. If you don’t like Steve’s calls go root for another driver. How would you feel if someone that was a fan of your company didn’t like job you were doing and asking for you to be fired?
by Chris Taitt on Mar 5, 2010 5:57 PM EST reply actions
Damn, Chris is fired up. Chris, you need to make a picture of Jeff with Jimmie’s horseshoe.
by Jeff Gluck on Mar 5, 2010 6:09 PM EST up reply actions
Nah just tired of all these so called Jeff Gordon fans that hate Steve Letarte. Yea its easy to point the finger at him but its harder to say your favorite driver made a mistake !!!
by Chris Taitt on Mar 5, 2010 6:15 PM EST up reply actions
Amen to that.
by Drusylla on Mar 5, 2010 6:24 PM EST up reply actions
so called Gordon fans yeah right buddy Letarte blew it alot for Gordon you may want to go back to the chase in 07 Gordon car would be good the first part of the race then went away at the end
by bullsfan24 on Mar 5, 2010 7:24 PM EST up reply actions
Thank you
To be honest I wasn’t even going to dignify these comments with one because no amount of words will get people to see the whole picture if they have blinders on. Jeff’s a champion. He’s happy with Stevie. Considering I’m not a 4x champ with 84 wins I’ll defer to his judgment.
I hate things like this, be it Junior or Jeff’s crew chiefs. It’s a team effort and Jeff hasn’t even been running bad. We aren’t talking about a 20th place car here people. So many times he ends up one position off…do you really think changing his crew chief and disrupting the whole situation would be a GOOD thing? He runs 2-3rd all the time and sure I’d give anything to see that become first but dismantling a successful team isn’t the way to do that.
Jeff’s happy. So happy he wants to run 5-6 more years when before he was talking retirement. That makes me happy. But what do I know? I’ve only been a fan of his since ’94.
by Drusylla on Mar 5, 2010 6:19 PM EST up reply actions
Are Chad and Jimmie better than Jeff and Ray?
by Jeff Gluck on Mar 5, 2010 6:19 PM EST reply actions
Chad and Jimmie have stayed together. In my eyes that’s the ONLY difference.
by Drusylla on Mar 5, 2010 6:23 PM EST up reply actions
thats hard to compare to different eras, different cars, rules changed and competition. If you remember there were rules made just because of some of the stuff Ray did. Have they changed any rules because of Chad?
by Chris Taitt on Mar 5, 2010 6:24 PM EST up reply actions
difference era
by bullsfan24 on Mar 5, 2010 7:30 PM EST up reply actions
30 top tens
Chris Taitt yeah Gordon might have set a new record but the fact is he came up short because of Letarte stupidity Jeffs car would be good at the start and towards the end it would go way when jimmy would be the opposite
by bullsfan24 on Mar 5, 2010 7:29 PM EST reply actions
really cant you be anymore blind Jeff also wanted to 2 tires they both thought more cars would take 2 tires too. Get it thought your think Head THEY ARE BOTH TO BLAME!!!!
by Chris Taitt on Mar 5, 2010 7:35 PM EST up reply actions
Really. Steve thought it was a good call, Jeff thought it was a good call. Would they do it over again? Probably not. But they learned and moved on. If there were less laps left in the race, Jeff would have won no matter how many tires Jimmie had. He was still able to hold him off for awhile. If the 2 tire call would have worked, Steve Latarte would be a genius right now. But every crew chief has made that kind of call before. Some lost, some won. Sometimes that’s just how it turns out.
As for being on the low side of the practice charts? I think it’s been proved many times that sometimes those charts just don’t matter. And sometimes qualifying doesn’t matter. How many times have we seen the pole sitter finish horrible and a car that wasn’t even a factor on the charts in practice win?
Jeff Gordon is a great racer. And he’s struggled over the past few years. Gordon fans are used to seeing him winning everything and now it’s someone else that’s winning all the time. That doesn’t mean there is a problem with the crew chief, just means that Jeff has fallen into the ‘averages’. He’s the one looking ahead to the guy that is ‘unstoppable’ just like many were in that position in the mid/late 90’s looking at Jeff. But Jeff’s ‘average’ is still a heck of a lot better than others. He has nothing to worry about.
by jr88freak on Mar 5, 2010 9:08 PM EST up reply actions
Can’t argue with Flyer fans after all they boo success all the time aka Sidney Crosby
by bullsfan24 on Mar 5, 2010 11:54 PM EST up reply actions
Crosby plays for the Penguins, not the Flyers. And Philly fans boo everyone.
by jr88freak on Mar 6, 2010 9:41 AM EST up reply actions
Someone needs some Prozac or Xanax.. LOL
I can’t tell you how sick to death I am of hearing some Gordon fans screaming for Steve’s head every time Jeff isn’t doing well on the track. If not for the Chase, Jeff would have won the Championship in 2007. Oh yes, Steve LeTarte was his CC!! Wow, how did this imcompetent guy pull that off?
I can’t tell you the number of times Jeff is having some difficulty at the beginning of a race & people are screaming about Steve only to see Jeff running great later on! Get a grip people! Oh right, Jeff had a bad practice time today. I ask you, where did he qualify tonight? Oh yes, top 5! Where is JJ? Yeah, not up there!
If anything, Jeff is a victim of his own success. People expect him to keep winning 13 races a season & winning championship after championship. The fact is, Jeff has not had a really terrible season ever. Why is it that Jeff’s career is being ruined by Steve yet there are other well-respected drivers in the garage ho don’t have a fraction of the success Jeff has, even now, who would give anything to have Jeff’s terrible record caused by Steve.
Chill out and try to enjoy racing a bit, ok? Be proud of your favorite driver. He has a fire in him this year and so do the crew & Steve. I’m very happy to see how they’ve started this season.
by Sue C on Mar 5, 2010 10:09 PM EST reply actions
I agree.
Jeff is a victim of his own success. His fans keept expecting the 10-13 win seasons or the like there of. There is nothing wrong with Gordon or Steve.
by jr88freak on Mar 5, 2010 10:24 PM EST up reply actions
Sorry, the above got posted before I could fix the typos and poor sentence structure. Yeah, I’m picky about that. LOL
by Sue C on Mar 5, 2010 10:11 PM EST reply actions
I can't wait
for the time in a couple years to start having these Chad and Jimmie headlines! “What’s wrong with Chad!” “Jimmie needs another crew chief!” “Knaus blunder causes Jimmie to finish 3rd… off with his head!”
by jr88freak on Mar 5, 2010 10:25 PM EST reply actions
That will be the day!!!
Jr88freak – That WILL be SOMETHING, won’t it?! It’s inevitable it will happen sooner or later. Perhaps JJ will lose that golden horseshow or ………….Kevin might steal it from him – after it’s thoroughly washing it, of course!! :-) ROFL
by Sue C on Mar 6, 2010 2:20 AM EST up reply actions
Comments For This Post Are Closed