Rash of Cut Rear Tires Mar Kansas NASCAR Cup Practice

Ty Gibbs led the way in NASCAR Cup Series practice on Saturday afternoon at Kansas Speedway, but the Joe Gibbs Racing driver was among the five drivers who suffered flat rear tires throughout the session ahead of Sunday's AdventHealth 400.

Joining Gibbs with flat rear tires in practice were Rookie of the Year contender Shane van Gisbergen, 2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski, two-time NASCAR Cup Series race-winner Chase Briscoe, and Zane Smith.

Gibbs, Briscoe, van Gisbergen, and Keselowski all cut left-rear tires, while Smith cut a right-rear tire.

While Goodyear is using the same right-side tire this weekend that it used at Kansas Speedway a season ago, the tire manufacturer swapped the left-side tire to the same compound it used at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, Darlington Raceway, and last weekend's race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Do we have a tire problem shaping up this weekend at Kansas Speedway?

Keselowski, who enters Kansas Speedway 32nd in the championship point standings and in desperate need of a turnaround, says it seems like his team simply got too aggressive on their tire pressures going into the practice session, but he's thankful the tire gave him a hint that he was encountering a problem.

"I was going through [Turns] 3 and 4, and it felt a little soft. Thankfully, it did give me a little warning so I didn't spin out and crash," Keselowski said. "But you know, we're all just pushing the cars to the limit. I didn't think we were going to be that close, but we'll work on it and get it better for Sunday."

While Keselowski felt his team went too aggressive on tire pressures, Smith, who cut his tire in Group 2 practice, says his team adjusted their pressures after seeing the four tire failures that occurred before his.

"Yeah, just saw those issues in the first group, and I felt we were safe on the pressures we were running, and then just blew a right rear in the middle of [Turns] 3 and 4," Smith said. "And unfortunately, it tagged the fence. Just an unfortunate spot to have that happen."

Gibbs' fast-lap in the session was a 29.976-second (180.144 mph) lap time, which made the driver of the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota the only driver to break into the 29-second bracket in the session

Michael McDowell, who suffered a heartbreaking defeat last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, was second-fastest in the session in the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet with a lap time of 30.091 seconds, 0.115 seconds off the pace of Gibbs.

Alex Bowman was the third-fastest in the session, and the driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet admitted that his race team cut their on-track time short in the practice session for fear of cutting a tire down themselves.

"Not so much out of ours, but out of everybody else's. Just trying not to give ourselves a headache, and an issue there," Bowman, who turned just 19 laps, said. "I feel like our Ally No. 48 Chevy is pretty good. Just props to everybody at Hendrick Motorsports for unloading with speed again. I'm excited about this place, I love this place. Hopefully, we don't have any tire issues, and we can qualify well and we can race from there."

In addition to the five tire failures, Kyle Larson also scrubbed the outside wall with his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in an unrelated incident. Larson ranked ninth-fastest in the practice.

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