Aric Almirola tops Bowyer in first Cup practice at Kansas

Almirola and his No. 10 Ford had topped the leaderboard early in the 50-minute session but returned to the top when a large group of cars began running together towards the end.

His average lap speed of 178.153 mph topped Clint Bowyer (178.153 mph) and Kyle Busch (177.160 mph) as Fords claimed three of the top four positions.

In Almirola’s three starts on 1.5-mile tracks this season, he has earned one pole and three top-10s with 39 laps led. 

“I feel really good about getting back to the 1.5-mile tracks,” he said. “We have had some bad luck and have made a few mistakes at the short tracks, so I’m ready to get to a track that we know we have to be good at because those are the tracks that make up the majority of the season.” 

Brad Keselowski was fourth and William Byron completed the top-five.

Rounding out the top 10 were Jimmie Johnson, Austin Dillon, Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick and Alex Bowman.

Harvick had the fastest average lap speed (175.974 mph) among those drivers who ran at least 10 consecutive laps. Keselowski and Austin Dillon were second and third, respectively, in that category.

Three drivers – Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Preece and Bowman – had to sit out the final 15 minutes of the session after their respective cars twice failed pre-race inspection last weekend.

Matt Tifft sat out the final 30 minutes of practice after his car failed pre-race inspection three times last weekend.

Cla	#	Driver		Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	10	Aric Almirola		Ford	23	30.311			178.153
2	14	Clint Bowyer		Ford	30	30.443	0.132	0.132	177.381
3	18	Kyle Busch		Toyota	26	30.481	0.170	0.038	177.160
4	2	Brad Keselowski		Ford	38	30.509	0.198	0.028	176.997
5	24	William Byron		Chevrolet	41	30.519	0.208	0.010	176.939
6	48	Jimmie Johnson		Chevrolet	34	30.520	0.209	0.001	176.933
7	3	Austin Dillon		Chevrolet	45	30.533	0.222	0.013	176.858
8	42	Kyle Larson		Chevrolet	41	30.564	0.253	0.031	176.678
9	4	Kevin Harvick		Ford	37	30.566	0.255	0.002	176.667
10	88	Alex Bowman		Chevrolet	22	30.577	0.266	0.011	176.603
11	12	Ryan Blaney		Ford	30	30.617	0.306	0.040	176.373
12	22	Joey Logano		Ford	38	30.633	0.322	0.016	176.280
13	8	Daniel Hemric		Chevrolet	53	30.643	0.332	0.010	176.223
14	20	Erik Jones		Toyota	29	30.660	0.349	0.017	176.125
15	41	Daniel Suarez		Ford	35	30.665	0.354	0.005	176.097
16	9	Chase Elliott		Chevrolet	50	30.668	0.357	0.003	176.079
17	11	Denny Hamlin		Toyota	29	30.700	0.389	0.032	175.896
18	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		Ford	35	30.706	0.395	0.006	175.861
19	21	Paul Menard		Ford	32	30.714	0.403	0.008	175.816
20	95	Matt DiBenedetto		Toyota	29	30.733	0.422	0.019	175.707
21	37	Chris Buescher		Chevrolet	50	30.736	0.425	0.003	175.690
22	1	Kurt Busch		Chevrolet	36	30.757	0.446	0.021	175.570
23	31	Tyler Reddick		Chevrolet	38	30.801	0.490	0.044	175.319
24	47	Ryan Preece		Chevrolet	20	30.831	0.520	0.030	175.148
25	6	Ryan Newman		Ford	27	30.861	0.550	0.030	174.978
26	00	Landon Cassill		Chevrolet	24	30.863	0.552	0.002	174.967
27	19	Martin Truex Jr.		Toyota	10	30.872	0.561	0.009	174.916
28	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.		Chevrolet	38	30.873	0.562	0.001	174.910
29	32	Corey Lajoie		Ford	31	30.897	0.586	0.024	174.774
30	13	Ty Dillon		Chevrolet	24	30.956	0.645	0.059	174.441
31	36	Matt Tifft		Ford	15	30.979	0.668	0.023	174.312
32	34	Michael McDowell		Ford	31	30.979	0.668	0.000	174.312
33	38	David Ragan		Ford	19	30.994	0.683	0.015	174.227
34	15	Ross Chastain		Chevrolet	27	31.150	0.839	0.156	173.355
35	52	Bayley Currey		Ford	7	31.223	0.912	0.073	172.949
36	51	Cody Ware		Chevrolet	4	31.707	1.396	0.484	170.309
37	27	Reed Sorenson		Chevrolet	14	31.792	1.481	0.085	169.854
38	77	Quin Houff		Chevrolet	25	31.911	1.600	0.119	169.221
39	66	Timmy Hill		Toyota	14	32.784	2.473	0.873	164.714
40	46	Joey Gase		Toyota	7	33.015	2.704	0.231	163.562