What are drivers saying about the Bristol Dirt Race?

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NASCAR Cup Series drivers got their first taste of what it’s like to wheel a 3,400-pound stock car around dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway with a pair of Friday practice sessions. Before Sunday’s Food City Dirt Race (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN, SiriusXM), see what the chatter is like among the competitors.

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Kevin Harvick: “I was on the verge of absolutely dreading this, but I’ve got to tell you, this is fun as (expletive).”

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Ryan Blaney after leading final practice: “It’s rough, slick, really rough actually. The track is kind of coming up and just crazy big divots. It’s definitely not smooth. It’s rough, but you just run through things that you think will work and there wasn’t really much lane changing going on. (Kyle) Larson and (Tyler) Reddick could kind of run the top for a little while and then it kind of went away after a handful of minutes, but just seeing how straight and smooth you can be and trying to keep tires on it. We’re seeing a lot of tires getting corded pretty quickly, especially right rears, even right fronts started to go pretty quick, so that’s something that’s gonna come into play is saving your tires when the track is probably gonna be like this come race time.”

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Chase Briscoe on Bristol dirt being a wild card: “I felt like going into it, just because you’re a dirt guy doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to have a real advantage. These don’t drive like a typical dirt car. Everyone in the Cup Series is so good, you give them two hours of practice, 250 laps in a race … it’s definitely going to be a wild-card race where anybody can win. Car setup I feel like matters a lot more here than it did at Eldora (Speedway) in the trucks. I think that’s another component of it all. I think the dirt guys have a little bit of an advantage when it comes to reading the race track and just knowing what’s it’s going to do 30-40 laps from now. But from a driving standpoint, they drive more like a typical stock car. The tendencies that you would do to find speed in a sprint car or a midget are kind of the opposite of what you’d do in one of these.”

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Alex Bowman on practice:
“I had a blast. I thought it was a lot of fun. The tire wear is a little concerning, but other than that, everything went great I thought. These cars are a lot of fun. They’re really drivable on dirt. It got a little rough, but it’s just character in the race track. I enjoyed the hell out of it.”

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Kyle Larson: “I think I’m considered a favorite probably at most race tracks right now. But I think with it being a dirt track, yes, I think people look at me with all the experience that I have on dirt as being even more of a favorite. But these cars are way different than what I typically race on dirt. They don’t drive anything like what I’m used to with a sprint car, midget or now a dirt late model. These cars are way heavier and have a lot less horsepower than I’m used to on a dirt track. I still think I’ve got a good shot, but I don’t really know if I have an advantage over anybody, other than just being able to kind of read the track surface.”

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William Byron on prepping for this race: “We spent probably four times at the Chevy sim working on various tracks, not just this track, but spent a lot of time texting each other, Rudy (Fugle) and I, engineers and I, late at night, stuff like that, just random thoughts that would come up. I’d just send a text or Rudy would send me a text.”

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Denny Hamlin on practice experience: “Yeah, I thought it was a lot of fun. It’s a lot of car control, a lot of throttle control, steering wheel, patience, things like that. Absolutely from my standpoint it was a lot of fun. Interesting to see when you get off line, where you need to go to try to salvage the lap. Search around for different color in the race track. Little bumpy, but overall, it was a fun day.”

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Austin Dillon on Kyle Larson calling him a favorite: “I feel like I’m playing that role a lot. It’s a good role to be in; like the spoiler side of it. But it does mean a lot to me that Kyle said that. I really respect his opinion on a lot of things and his talent level, everybody talks about it in the media center. He’s a very talented driver, so for him to throw me in there means a lot and drives me to want to get after it even more this weekend than I already do.”