Harvick, Bowyer skip final Cup practice
SONOMA, Calif. - Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer skipped Saturday morning's final 45-minute Nextel Cup practice session at Infineon Raceway to give them a little extra time to get to the Milwaukee Mile for the Busch Series race that night.
The first practice for NASCAR's Cup teams ended at 10:15 a.m. Pacific - 12:15 p.m. in Milwaukee - and Harvick and Bowyer will leave after that. Four other drivers doing the double - Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards, J.J. Yeley and Kyle Busch - all planned to stay for the final 45-minute session, which was scheduled to end at 1:55 p.m. Milwaukee time.
They all likely will miss qualifying, which is scheduled to begin at 5:05 p.m. CDT. The race is scheduled to start at 8:05 p.m.
For Harvick, leaving with six hours to spare was cutting it a little too close. The flight is approximately 4 hours, not including helicopter or car travel to and from the tracks to the airports.
"[Bowyer] was trying to talk us into staying for the second session," Harvick said. "We made a plan a couple weeks back and looked at all the schedules, and it's just going to be better to stick to our plan.
"We'll run the first session and as soon as it's over, we'll head out. That gives us some time in case we have some problems."
The drivers will likely have to start at the rear of the field for the Busch race, because there is virtually no way they could make the drivers meeting, which is 4:30 p.m.
All of the drivers have substitutes ready to practice and qualify: Harvick has Randy LaJoie, Bowyer has Brandon Miller, Hamlin has Aric Almirola, Yeley has Casey Atwood, Edwards has Hank Parker Jr. and Busch has Dennis Setzer.
Robby Gordon led the first Nextel Cup practice session Saturday with a speed of 92.472 mph. Two drivers did not take laps: Tom Hubert and Scott Pruett. Pruett is in mid-Ohio for the Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series event today. Hubert practiced in the second session Saturday.
