Sean Gardner | Getty ImagesThe session ends shortly thereafter, and the No. 8 Chevrolet returns to the garage. There, the team assesses what they learned during the 50-minute session, analyzes the adjustments they made and ultimately prepares to shut down for the evening.
“Yeah, it’s been a little chaotic,” Burnett says after the session. “Obviously, it’s less than ideal to get your primary car tore up. Fortunately, we had experience going through that last year, so we kind of knew what to expect. So, the guys did a really good job of getting the car together. The guys at the shop did a really good job of making sure the backup car was prepped really well. And so when we unloaded it, it was in really good shape. So that helped a ton.”
Busch’s feedback from the Duel helped inform Burnett’s direction on the backup car: The car started tight and built loose over a run, giving Burnett and engineers Nate Troupe and Andrew Dickeson something to ponder.
“I don’t know that we got it 100% of what he wanted, but I think we got the right direction,” Burnett said. “I think we’ll make a few more changes for Sunday for the 500 to try to help him with that.”
After practice, interior specialist Richard Parks explained this week’s workload was a “little bit worse than usual” because the backup didn’t have all the driver cooling components that were in the primary. But overall, with the help of Joe Mchone as an additional hand this week, “it really wasn’t too bad for us,” Parks said.
“Kyle’s pretty easy with all this stuff,” he added. “He’s not too hard to please, believe it or not. So yeah, it went pretty well for as far as the interior stuff goes.”
Standing in the hauler after snacking on Fritos dipped in Stan’s Pimento Cheese Spread, Burnett is pleased with what he sees at the end of the night.
“Now we can kind of fine-tune and fluff and buff on the car some and get it really right and work on some setup stuff that we wanted to try and go from there,” Burnett said.
As the group prepares to close shop for the night, the overriding sentiment now is optimism.
“We’re very positive. We feel like we’ve got a really good shot,” Parks said. “This is our backup car — not our best car or our best motor. … But we still feel like we got a really good shot at this thing, especially with Kyle driving the car.”
SATURDAY
10:25 a.m.: Cup Series final practice is canceled because of inclement weather, which didn’t change any of the No. 8 team’s plans anyway. The group remains hard at work preparing the car before inspection opens at 11 a.m. So far, “fluff and buff” has referred mainly to attention near the spoiler and deck lid, though Parks and Mchone tend to the front windshield and some center braces in the cockpit.
10:40 a.m.: The atmosphere is generally more tense at this moment, with the spoiler seemingly not cooperating with their preferred angles. Burnett takes a hammer to the back of the spoiler, direct center, trying to make it adhere both to their preferences and within NASCAR’s specifications.