Almirola tops afternoon testing session, Hamlin crashes
Aric Almirola was fastest in Thursday afternoon’s NASCAR test session at Las Vegas that saw driver Denny Hamlin wreck the car with which he planned to compete in Sunday’s race.
Photo by: Action Sports Photography
Hamlin was on his first run in the afternoon session following several set-up changes and pancaked the right side of his No. 11 Toyota.
The car was the one Hamlin planned to use in Sunday’s race (teams could use either their primary or backup cars in the test). His Joe Gibbs Racing team quickly went to work on his backup car and he was able to return to the track in the session.
“It just snapped loose first lap after the changes,” he said.
Almirola posted the fastest single-lap speed (192.940 mph). That was slightly off the pace of Jimmie Johnson (192.981 mph), who led the morning three-hour session.
In the afternoon, Austin Dillon was second-fastest (192.658 mph), Ryan Blaney was third (191.659 mph), Kurt Busch was fourth (191.381 mph) and Greg Biffle (189.800 mph) completed the top-five.
Brian Vickers, who is driving Tony Stewart’s No. 14 Chevrolet this weekend, completed the most laps during the afternoon test (117).
Kevin Harvick, the defending winner of the Kobalt 400, ended up 19th fastest in the afternoon session (188.271 mph).
Johnson posted the best 10 consecutive lap average speed of the afternoon session (187.325 mph). Matt Kenseth was second and Kurt Busch third.
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