DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — One of the prevailing storylines of Saturday’s opening practice session for the 59th annual Daytona 500 was the struggles of Furniture Row Racing getting through the inspection line.
Both Erik Jones’ No. 77 5 Hour Energy Toyota and Martin Truex Jr.’s No. 78 Bass Pro Shops Toyota had to make several passes through the four inspection stations as the remainder of the field began practicing at the 2.5-mile Daytona Int’l Speedway.
In fact, it wasn’t until more than two hours had passed in the four-hour open session ahead of Sunday’s Coors Light Pole Qualifying session that both cars were even cleared to enter pit road and take to the track.
Team president Joe Garone addressed the team’s inspection issues once both cars were cleared of the process on Saturday, saying that the issues with both cars were “very similar” and dismissing any speculation that their mock inspection setup at the team’s Denver, Colorado-based shop was off compared to NASCAR’s setup at the track.
“You’re dealing with thousandths of an inch on these overall grids,” Garone said. “What you end up doing is you fix one area, and (then) it’s off on another area on the other side of the car. You just keep going back and forth and back and forth (until it’s right). You just don’t want to panic, because on a day like today, you’ve got plenty of time. We just took our time and got it right.”
“We have to take (the inspection setup) all the way out to Denver, Colorado, so sometimes that’s a concern. We do everything we can to ensure that (our setup) is dead on, but again, you’re dealing with thousandths of an inch. We’re fine. We know what we have now and we know what we need to do back at the shop now, so we’ll move forward.”
Jones first took to the track in the third hour of practice, posting his first on-track laps as a Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. His final run came with 16 minutes to go, a time of 46.797 seconds (192.320 mph) placing him 16th of 42 cars on the overall speed charts.
“I’ve done more looking ahead and preparation for this race than really any other race of my career,” Jones said at the end of practice. “I spent a couple hours at JGR with their aero guy … going over stuff and trying to figure out how to draft, make maneuvers and how to pass.”
“There’s a lot of things different than what I had to deal with in the Truck or on the XFINITY side … so I’m looking forward to seeing (the Clash) tonight and hopefully put some of the things I’m learning into action tomorrow (in qualifying).”
Truex did not make an on-track appearance at all until 40 minutes to go in the four-hour marathon session. He took only one run, posting a time of 46.924 seconds (191.800 mph) that slotted him 23rd on the pylon.
“I was bored,” Truex admitted with a chuckle. “I was definitely looking for something to do … we were hanging out in the trailer and, I think, ran out of things to talk about. It’s been an interesting day, to say the least, but we were only planning on making one run anyways. We just hoped it might have been a little earlier (in the day), but we’ll be alright.”
About the Writer
Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network.
Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s.
The 22-year-old is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.
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