Almirola leads the way in Saturday's first Texas practice

Almirola topped the 55-minute session with an average lap speed of 193.854 mph, just edging Toyota driver Kyle Busch (193.805 mph).

Almirola’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammate, Clint Bowyer, ended up third (193.771 mph) with Ford driver Brad Keselowski in fourth and Toyota driver Denny Hamlin completing the top-five.

“I think the most difficult thing at Texas now that it’s repaved and they changed the banking in Turns 1 and 2 is just the speed that you carry through the banked corner of Turns 3 and 4, and then you have to get slowed down for the flat Turns 1 and 2,” Almirola said.

“That has made it very challenging. Then, the exit of Turn 2 is very flat, so you’re carrying some speed there and the car just doesn’t have a lot of grip because there isn’t any banking.”

Almirola is currently ranked lowest in points among the eight remaining Cup playoff drivers but a win at Texas on Sunday or next week at Phoenix will lock him into the Championship 4 battle at Homestead, Fla.

In his last 10 starts at 1.5 mile tracks, Almirola has five top-10 finishes and has led 70 laps with an average starting position of 12.2 and an average finish of 14.4.

Rounding out the Top 10 were Kurt Busch, Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr.

Among the drivers who completed at least 10 consecutive laps, Harvick had the fastest average lap speed at 192.022 mph.

Late in the session, J.J. Yeley scrubbed the wall going through Turns 3 and 4 but didn’t appear to do significant damage to his No. 23 Toyota.

Cla	#	Driver	4506	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	39	27.856			193.854
2	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	30	27.863	0.007	0.007	193.805
3	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	42	27.868	0.012	0.005	193.771
4	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	17	27.899	0.043	0.031	193.555
5	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	33	27.921	0.065	0.022	193.403
6	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	47	27.934	0.078	0.013	193.313
7	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	43	27.936	0.080	0.002	193.299
8	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	34	27.938	0.082	0.002	193.285
9	22	Joey Logano	Ford	46	27.956	0.100	0.018	193.161
10	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	27	27.957	0.101	0.001	193.154
11	21	Paul Menard	Ford	27	27.966	0.110	0.009	193.092
12	20	Erik Jones	Toyota	32	27.970	0.114	0.004	193.064
13	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	24	27.972	0.116	0.002	193.050
14	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	34	27.974	0.118	0.002	193.036
15	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	26	27.989	0.133	0.015	192.933
16	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	22	28.039	0.183	0.050	192.589
17	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	39	28.039	0.183	0.000	192.589
18	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	45	28.080	0.224	0.041	192.308
19	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	43	28.092	0.236	0.012	192.226
20	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	25	28.101	0.245	0.009	192.164
21	88	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	30	28.109	0.253	0.008	192.109
22	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	16	28.111	0.255	0.002	192.096
23	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	32	28.123	0.267	0.012	192.014
24	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	21	28.194	0.338	0.071	191.530
25	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	27	28.241	0.385	0.047	191.211
26	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.	Chevrolet	33	28.254	0.398	0.013	191.123
27	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	29	28.255	0.399	0.001	191.117
28	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	23	28.431	0.575	0.176	189.934
29	95	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	31	28.457	0.601	0.026	189.760
30	38	David Ragan	Ford	35	28.493	0.637	0.036	189.520
31	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	21	28.529	0.673	0.036	189.281
32	96	Parker Kligerman	Toyota	28	28.687	0.831	0.158	188.239
33	15	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	19	28.777	0.921	0.090	187.650
34	7	Reed Sorenson	Chevrolet	15	28.971	1.115	0.194	186.393
35	00	Landon Cassill	Chevrolet	29	29.082	1.226	0.111	185.682
36	23	J.J. Yeley	Toyota	6	29.271	1.415	0.189	184.483
37	72	Corey Lajoie	Chevrolet	18	29.335	1.479	0.064	184.080
38	99	Kyle Weatherman	Chevrolet	4	29.398	1.542	0.063	183.686
39	97	David Starr	Toyota	17	29.968	2.112	0.570	180.192
40	51	Joey Gase	Ford	17	30.111	2.255	0.143	179.336