Dover Cup practice mired by inspection delays; Menard fastest

Menard’s No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford was among the few cars that had cleared inspection and were on the track at the start of the session at Dover (Del.) International Speedway. He posted a session-best average lap speed of 159.830 mph.

Jimmie Johnson, who was one of the drivers whose car had the most difficulty getting through inspection, went out late and ended up second-fastest (159.440 mph). That was a good sign for the 11-time winner at the track. Kevin Harvick ended up third-fastest (159.412 mph).

“I can relax a little bit more coming to this race track. With it being my best track and the love I have for this place, I’m always excited to come,” Johnson said.

“But trying to get the No. 48 car back into Victory Lane, I can take a little pressure off myself here knowing the rhythm-style and the way you drive this track and the set-up for the car.”

Kyle Busch was fourth and Brad Keselowski completed the top-five.

With less than five minutes remaining, Corey LaJoie’s No. 72 Chevrolet appeared to blow its engine, dropping fluid on the track and bring out a caution. After the clean-up, NASCAR extended the practice session by about three minutes.

Most cars had not been able to clear inspection prior to the start of the practice session and through the first 10 minutes, only 10 had made it out on the track.

Earlier in the week, NASCAR had notified teams that it would be focusing attention during inspection on Friday to the car’s splitters but yet several showed up having difficulty clearing that area of inspection before they could hit the track.

With just over 30 minutes into the session, only 24 cars had taken laps. Among those who were still experiencing problems were the teams of Martin Truex Jr., Johnson, Aric Almirola, Kasey Kahne and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

“There’s something that NASCAR is looking for every week,” Stenhouse said before he was able to get on track with his No. 17 Ford. “We were hoping that we’d have more than one or two runs at it.”

Ross Chastain was forced to miss the final 15 minutes of the practice session for being late to pre-qualifying/race inspection last weekend at Talladega.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	21	Paul Menard	Ford	6	22.524			159.830
2	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	6	22.579	0.055	0.055	159.440
3	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	4	22.583	0.059	0.004	159.412
4	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	5	22.599	0.075	0.016	159.299
5	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	5	22.612	0.088	0.013	159.208
6	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	4	22.630	0.106	0.018	159.081
7	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	6	22.643	0.119	0.013	158.990
8	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	12	22.653	0.129	0.010	158.919
9	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	6	22.658	0.134	0.005	158.884
10	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	3	22.681	0.157	0.023	158.723
11	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	5	22.706	0.182	0.025	158.548
12	22	Joey Logano	Ford	23	22.709	0.185	0.003	158.527
13	88	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	13	22.744	0.220	0.035	158.284
14	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	4	22.754	0.230	0.010	158.214
15	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	5	22.759	0.235	0.005	158.179
16	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	4	22.761	0.237	0.002	158.165
17	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	5	22.782	0.258	0.021	158.019
18	95	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	4	22.782	0.258	0.000	158.019
19	20	Erik Jones	Toyota	5	22.819	0.295	0.037	157.763
20	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	7	22.822	0.298	0.003	157.743
21	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	10	22.850	0.326	0.028	157.549
22	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.	Chevrolet	10	22.873	0.349	0.023	157.391
23	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	8	22.890	0.366	0.017	157.274
24	38	David Ragan	Ford	7	22.899	0.375	0.009	157.212
25	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	12	22.902	0.378	0.003	157.192
26	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	5	22.910	0.386	0.008	157.137
27	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	13	22.939	0.415	0.029	156.938
28	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	5	22.994	0.470	0.055	156.563
29	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	7	23.041	0.517	0.047	156.243
30	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	6	23.060	0.536	0.019	156.114
31	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	9	23.285	0.761	0.225	154.606
32	23	Gray Gaulding	Toyota	12	23.703	1.179	0.418	151.880
33	00	Landon Cassill	Chevrolet	6	23.869	1.345	0.166	150.823
34	15	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	4	23.944	1.420	0.075	150.351
35	72	Corey Lajoie	Chevrolet	8	24.199	1.675	0.255	148.766
36	55	Reed Sorenson	Chevrolet	3	24.274	1.750	0.075	148.307
37	99	Derrike Cope	Chevrolet	5	24.791	2.267	0.517	145.214
38	51	Cody Ware	Ford	3	25.465	2.941	0.674	141.371