Chase Elliott leads the way in final Cup practice at the Glen
Could Chase Elliott be poised for a second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series victory at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International?
Chase Elliott, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet Camaro NAPA Batteries
Nigel Kinrade / NKP / Motorsport Images
In the final minutes of Saturday’s final practice session, Elliott jumped to the top of the speed chart with an average lap of 126.901 mph – nearly a mile-and-a-half faster than second-place Martin Truex Jr. (125.418 mph).
Matt DiBenedetto ended up third (125.391 mph), Michael McDowell fourth and Kyle Busch completed the top-five.
Elliott picked up his first career Cup Series victory last year with his win at Watkins Glen, holding off Truex.
“Everybody wants to talk about last year and that’s great. I’m glad that last year happened, for sure. I’m proud of it, but we celebrated it when it was time to celebrate it and now is not really the time to celebrate it,” Elliott said.
“We had our time to do that in between here and wherever we went after that, and we did it and had plenty of it. It’s out of my system and it’s time to come back and try to run good. I feel like we had an OK first practice, but we have some work to do.
“I think it’s just dialing things in and it’s tough. Everybody is really close.”
Rounding out the top 10 in practice were Clint Bowyer, Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Erik Jones.
Kyle Busch had the best average lap speed (124.535 mph) among the drivers who ran at least 10 consecutive laps. Hamlin and Ryan Blaney were second and third, respectively, in that category.
Cla | # | Driver | Manufacturer | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Chevrolet | 24 | 1'09.503 | 126.901 | |||
2 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | 19 | 1'10.325 | 0.822 | 0.822 | 125.418 | |
3 | 95 | Matt DiBenedetto | Toyota | 25 | 1'10.340 | 0.837 | 0.015 | 125.391 | |
4 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Ford | 18 | 1'10.414 | 0.911 | 0.074 | 125.259 | |
5 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 30 | 1'10.518 | 1.015 | 0.104 | 125.074 | |
6 | 14 | Clint Bowyer | Ford | 20 | 1'10.580 | 1.077 | 0.062 | 124.965 | |
7 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 28 | 1'10.682 | 1.179 | 0.102 | 124.784 | |
8 | 24 | William Byron | Chevrolet | 24 | 1'10.717 | 1.214 | 0.035 | 124.722 | |
9 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Ford | 16 | 1'10.720 | 1.217 | 0.003 | 124.717 | |
10 | 20 | Erik Jones | Toyota | 22 | 1'10.757 | 1.254 | 0.037 | 124.652 | |
11 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Ford | 19 | 1'10.778 | 1.275 | 0.021 | 124.615 | |
12 | 37 | Chris Buescher | Chevrolet | 19 | 1'10.811 | 1.308 | 0.033 | 124.557 | |
13 | 88 | Alex Bowman | Chevrolet | 27 | 1'10.888 | 1.385 | 0.077 | 124.422 | |
14 | 41 | Daniel Suarez | Ford | 22 | 1'10.949 | 1.446 | 0.061 | 124.315 | |
15 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | 28 | 1'10.957 | 1.454 | 0.008 | 124.301 | |
16 | 42 | Kyle Larson | Chevrolet | 25 | 1'10.967 | 1.464 | 0.010 | 124.283 | |
17 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Ford | 27 | 1'10.979 | 1.476 | 0.012 | 124.262 | |
18 | 1 | Kurt Busch | Chevrolet | 18 | 1'11.027 | 1.524 | 0.048 | 124.178 | |
19 | 22 | Joey Logano | Ford | 29 | 1'11.144 | 1.641 | 0.117 | 123.974 | |
20 | 13 | Ty Dillon | Chevrolet | 16 | 1'11.260 | 1.757 | 0.116 | 123.772 | |
21 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Ford | 20 | 1'11.298 | 1.795 | 0.038 | 123.706 | |
22 | 21 | Paul Menard | Ford | 19 | 1'11.323 | 1.820 | 0.025 | 123.663 | |
23 | 8 | Daniel Hemric | Chevrolet | 21 | 1'11.432 | 1.929 | 0.109 | 123.474 | |
24 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Ford | 22 | 1'11.490 | 1.987 | 0.058 | 123.374 | |
25 | 6 | Ryan Newman | Ford | 19 | 1'11.548 | 2.045 | 0.058 | 123.274 | |
26 | 96 | Parker Kligerman | Toyota | 11 | 1'11.672 | 2.169 | 0.124 | 123.061 | |
27 | 47 | Ryan Preece | Chevrolet | 21 | 1'11.756 | 2.253 | 0.084 | 122.917 | |
28 | 38 | David Ragan | Ford | 16 | 1'11.805 | 2.302 | 0.049 | 122.833 | |
29 | 36 | Matt Tifft | Ford | 24 | 1'12.159 | 2.656 | 0.354 | 122.230 | |
30 | 43 | Darrell Wallace Jr. | Chevrolet | 17 | 1'12.212 | 2.709 | 0.053 | 122.140 | |
31 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | 18 | 1'12.236 | 2.733 | 0.024 | 122.100 | |
32 | 32 | Corey Lajoie | Ford | 12 | 1'12.607 | 3.104 | 0.371 | 121.476 | |
33 | 51 | Cody Ware | Chevrolet | 8 | 1'14.426 | 4.923 | 1.819 | 118.507 | |
34 | 77 | Justin Haley | Chevrolet | 3 | 1'16.325 | 6.822 | 1.899 | 115.558 |
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