NASCAR's return to a restrictor plate race may just be what Scott Speed needs to get things back on track.
Speed hasn’t finished inside the top-20 on an oval since the last time the series hit a restrictor plate race at a superspeedway, taking 15th in late April’s Aaron’s 499 in Talladega, Alabama.
He also scored his first ever career top-five finish at Talladega last season. Add that to the 19th he scored in the season opener at the Daytona International Speedway and Speed will definitely be looking for a top finish Saturday night.
“I like Daytona a lot. We ran well there last time. It should be good,” Speed said. “It marks the halfway point. It’s nice to be home on a Sunday and finishing under the lights is pretty cool – not meaning the weather.”
Saturday’s night race is the 18th race of the 36-stop Sprint cup season that runs from February to November and sees the series return to Florida where the 2010 action began four months ago with the Daytona 500.
That race was marred by a problem with the track surface in Turn 2 where the asphalt tore up and created a dangerous pothole that caused two red flags and a total delay of almost two-and-a-half hours for repairs. The 500 also had the cars racing with the now-ditched wing, which was replaced by the old-style spoiler in March.
'I like Daytona a lot. We ran well there last time. It should be good' – Scott Speed
But the No. 82 Red Bull Toyota driver doesn’t think either is worth any worry in Saturday’s 400-mile night affair. “They had to make a change to the track to fix Turn 1 and 2, but I expect things to be pretty similar to the last time we were there,” Speed said.
After finishing 27th on Sunday in New Hampshire, Speed travelled to Tennessee where he spent Tuesday testing tyres for Goodyear at the Bristol Motor Speedway in preparation for the upcoming Cup race in August.
A good result Saturday will help Speed get back in the hunt for a top-20 overall finish in points he targeted as his goal for 2010. He started strong and was in the top-20 for the first five races of the season, but then delivered a string of inconsistent finishes and slipped down the standings. After 17 starts, he’s now 26th overall, 215 away from his target.
His teammate for Daytona and the next race in Chicago, Reed Sorenson, also likes racing on the 2.5-mile, tri-oval superspeedway. He’s put up two top-10 finishes in eight tries, including a fifth two years ago in the 2008 season opener.
Things didn’t go so well for Sorenson in the second practice session after he got caught up in a wreck not of his own making. Late in the session, Sorenson was in the wrong place at the wrong time on the back straight when Kyle Busch clipped Denny Hamlin’s left rear. The No. 11 Toyota turned into Sorenson’s right rear and sent the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota straight into the wall.
After the accident, Sorenson had to ask Hamlin what happened: “It was all behind me so I couldn’t see it. That’s what happens here, you’ll be going straight and the next thing you know you’re in a wreck and you don’t know why.”
'The Red Bull guys do a great job and I am sure they will get the back-up car just like that one' – Reed Sorenson (after crashing in practice)
The team immediately moved to the back-up car after surveying the extensive damage from the incident. The wreck came as Sorenson was trying out a change on the car that he felt eked a bit more speed.
“That car was fast – I am kind of sad about it,” he said. “We made a good change there and we didn’t plan on running long because we came out at the end of the day. It’s tough for something to happen like that.”
Despite crashing at the end of his session, Sorenson was 16th quickest after posting the 10th best time in opening practice, while Speed ended the two sessions 29th and 35th respectively.
And that has him feeling confident for the rest of the weekend. “The Red Bull guys do a great job and I am sure they will get the back-up car just like that one,” he said. “We have great race cars and we will be fine. I’m not really worried about it.”
To make matters worse, Sorenson blew a tyre in his Nationwide practice session on Thursday and caused a huge crash, which forced him to his back-up car in that series too. Sorenson will race the No. 32 Toyota in the Nationwide Subway Jalapeno 250 Friday night.
Hook up with the Red Bull Racing Team and follow Brian Vickers on Facebook and Scott Speed on Twitter.
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