Chase Elliott leads final Cup practice at Watkins Glen
Chase Elliott, looking for his first Top 10 finish at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International, led the way in Saturday’s final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice session.
Photo by: Logan Whitton / NKP / Motorsport Images
Elliott’s set the fastest average lap speed of 124.520 mph with just minutes left in the one-hour, 15-minute session.
In five career road course starts, Elliott earned his career-best finish of fourth earlier this season at Sonoma, Calif. He’s finished 13th in both trips to the Glen.
Denny Hamlin ended up second (124.365 mph) while Aric Almirola was third (123.979 mph). Rookie William Byron was fourth and Michael McDowell completed the top-five.
Rounding out the Top 10 were Jimmie Johnson, Jamie McMurray, Kasey Kahne, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and last year’s race winner, Martin Truex Jr.
Truex is looking for his third consecutive road course victory in the Cup series.
“It’s a great race track and I really enjoy the road racing. We’ll see if we can make it three in a row. I feel like things would have went right, maybe we would have got three in a row and been going for four,” Truex said.
“That’s racing and that’s the way it goes. Being able to put it all together last year here and win was a big win for my career.”
With 35 minutes left in the session, a caution was displayed to clear the inner-loop area of reported debris. The session quickly returned to green.
Both Michael McDowell and Chase Elliott had to make pass-thru penalties on pit road during practice for driving through the inner-loop and failing to come to a stop.
Cla | # | Driver | 4506 | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Chevrolet | 25 | 1'10.832 | 124.520 | ||
2 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 23 | 1'10.920 | 0.088 | 0.088 | 124.365 |
3 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Ford | 19 | 1'11.141 | 0.309 | 0.221 | 123.979 |
4 | 24 | William Byron | Chevrolet | 20 | 1'11.142 | 0.310 | 0.001 | 123.977 |
5 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Ford | 14 | 1'11.180 | 0.348 | 0.038 | 123.911 |
6 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | 19 | 1'11.304 | 0.472 | 0.124 | 123.696 |
7 | 1 | Jamie McMurray | Chevrolet | 25 | 1'11.312 | 0.480 | 0.008 | 123.682 |
8 | 95 | Kasey Kahne | Chevrolet | 11 | 1'11.324 | 0.492 | 0.012 | 123.661 |
9 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Ford | 14 | 1'11.416 | 0.584 | 0.092 | 123.502 |
10 | 78 | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | 23 | 1'11.442 | 0.610 | 0.026 | 123.457 |
11 | 21 | Paul Menard | Ford | 21 | 1'11.460 | 0.628 | 0.018 | 123.426 |
12 | 88 | Alex Bowman | Chevrolet | 23 | 1'11.521 | 0.689 | 0.061 | 123.320 |
13 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Ford | 20 | 1'11.552 | 0.720 | 0.031 | 123.267 |
14 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Ford | 21 | 1'11.606 | 0.774 | 0.054 | 123.174 |
15 | 19 | Daniel Suarez | Toyota | 21 | 1'11.630 | 0.798 | 0.024 | 123.133 |
16 | 37 | Chris Buescher | Chevrolet | 18 | 1'11.719 | 0.887 | 0.089 | 122.980 |
17 | 31 | Ryan Newman | Chevrolet | 17 | 1'11.723 | 0.891 | 0.004 | 122.973 |
18 | 41 | Kurt Busch | Ford | 31 | 1'11.748 | 0.916 | 0.025 | 122.930 |
19 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 28 | 1'11.879 | 1.047 | 0.131 | 122.706 |
20 | 22 | Joey Logano | Ford | 31 | 1'11.970 | 1.138 | 0.091 | 122.551 |
21 | 6 | Matt Kenseth | Ford | 17 | 1'11.973 | 1.141 | 0.003 | 122.546 |
22 | 20 | Erik Jones | Toyota | 29 | 1'11.987 | 1.155 | 0.014 | 122.522 |
23 | 13 | Ty Dillon | Chevrolet | 22 | 1'12.159 | 1.327 | 0.172 | 122.230 |
24 | 14 | Clint Bowyer | Ford | 8 | 1'12.174 | 1.342 | 0.015 | 122.205 |
25 | 42 | Kyle Larson | Chevrolet | 35 | 1'12.198 | 1.366 | 0.024 | 122.164 |
26 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Ford | 25 | 1'12.237 | 1.405 | 0.039 | 122.098 |
27 | 47 | A.J. Allmendinger | Chevrolet | 21 | 1'12.277 | 1.445 | 0.040 | 122.031 |
28 | 38 | David Ragan | Ford | 18 | 1'12.373 | 1.541 | 0.096 | 121.869 |
29 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | 22 | 1'12.636 | 1.804 | 0.263 | 121.427 |
30 | 72 | Cole Whitt | Chevrolet | 13 | 1'12.767 | 1.935 | 0.131 | 121.209 |
31 | 96 | Parker Kligerman | Toyota | 18 | 1'12.852 | 2.020 | 0.085 | 121.067 |
32 | 32 | Matt DiBenedetto | Ford | 12 | 1'13.375 | 2.543 | 0.523 | 120.204 |
33 | 43 | Darrell Wallace Jr. | Chevrolet | 21 | 1'13.444 | 2.612 | 0.069 | 120.091 |
34 | 23 | Spencer Gallagher | Toyota | 11 | 1'13.758 | 2.926 | 0.314 | 119.580 |
35 | 00 | Landon Cassill | Chevrolet | 8 | 1'14.774 | 3.942 | 1.016 | 117.955 |
36 | 51 | Josh Bilicki | Chevrolet |
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