Fresh off first Cup win, Erik Jones tops final practice at Kentucky
Momentum helps and Erik Jones showed the benefits in Friday’s final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice.
Photo by: Barry Cantrell / NKP / Motorsport Images
Fresh off his first series victory last weekend, Jones rocketed to the top of the leaderboard in final practice at Kentucky Speedway, leading the way with an average lap speed of 187.748 mph.
“I think there’s still work we’ve got to do, but, you know, we’re coming into a stretch of really good tracks for us,” Jones said Friday. “We ran through Sonoma and Chicago, which Sonoma is definitely not a good track for me and had a good run. And Chicago’s an okay track for myself and we had a good run there.
“Then, obviously, getting that win at Daytona, so there’s a lot of momentum on our side for almost the last month now and we want to keep that rolling obviously, but I think there’s going to be a little bit of work to do to catch (the series leaders).
“Hopefully, we can use that to our advantage and figure out what it’s going to take to get up there.”
In his only previous Cup start at Kentucky, Jones started 14th in last year’s race and finished sixth.
Ryan Blaney ended up second-fastest (186.896 mph) and Kyle Busch was third (186.503 mph). Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was fourth – putting up his fast lap very late in the 50-minute session – and Austin Dillon completed the top-five.
Rounding out the Top 10 were Darrell Wallace Jr., Clint Bowyer, Daniel Suarez, Aric Almirola and Chase Elliott.
Cla | # | Driver | Manufacturer | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 20 | Erik Jones | Toyota | 5 | 28.762 | 187.748 | ||
2 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Ford | 24 | 28.829 | 0.067 | 0.067 | 187.311 |
3 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 22 | 28.954 | 0.192 | 0.125 | 186.503 |
4 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Ford | 11 | 29.035 | 0.273 | 0.081 | 185.982 |
5 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | 14 | 29.077 | 0.315 | 0.042 | 185.714 |
6 | 43 | Darrell Wallace Jr. | Chevrolet | 8 | 29.133 | 0.371 | 0.056 | 185.357 |
7 | 14 | Clint Bowyer | Ford | 25 | 29.140 | 0.378 | 0.007 | 185.312 |
8 | 19 | Daniel Suarez | Toyota | 21 | 29.161 | 0.399 | 0.021 | 185.179 |
9 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Ford | 17 | 29.161 | 0.399 | 0.000 | 185.179 |
10 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Chevrolet | 25 | 29.175 | 0.413 | 0.014 | 185.090 |
11 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Ford | 29 | 29.198 | 0.436 | 0.023 | 184.944 |
12 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Ford | 24 | 29.206 | 0.444 | 0.008 | 184.894 |
13 | 41 | Kurt Busch | Ford | 19 | 29.242 | 0.480 | 0.036 | 184.666 |
14 | 78 | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | 21 | 29.265 | 0.503 | 0.023 | 184.521 |
15 | 31 | Ryan Newman | Chevrolet | 20 | 29.348 | 0.586 | 0.083 | 183.999 |
16 | 6 | Matt Kenseth | Ford | 17 | 29.473 | 0.711 | 0.125 | 183.219 |
17 | 37 | Chris Buescher | Chevrolet | 22 | 29.501 | 0.739 | 0.028 | 183.045 |
18 | 47 | A.J. Allmendinger | Chevrolet | 22 | 29.522 | 0.760 | 0.021 | 182.914 |
19 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Ford | 11 | 29.533 | 0.771 | 0.011 | 182.846 |
20 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 40 | 29.555 | 0.793 | 0.022 | 182.710 |
21 | 13 | Ty Dillon | Chevrolet | 16 | 29.577 | 0.815 | 0.022 | 182.574 |
22 | 38 | David Ragan | Ford | 14 | 29.625 | 0.863 | 0.048 | 182.278 |
23 | 22 | Joey Logano | Ford | 40 | 29.707 | 0.945 | 0.082 | 181.775 |
24 | 21 | Paul Menard | Ford | 25 | 29.726 | 0.964 | 0.019 | 181.659 |
25 | 42 | Kyle Larson | Chevrolet | 48 | 29.733 | 0.971 | 0.007 | 181.616 |
26 | 1 | Jamie McMurray | Chevrolet | 35 | 29.767 | 1.005 | 0.034 | 181.409 |
27 | 24 | William Byron | Chevrolet | 39 | 29.883 | 1.121 | 0.116 | 180.705 |
28 | 88 | Alex Bowman | Chevrolet | 19 | 29.887 | 1.125 | 0.004 | 180.681 |
29 | 95 | Kasey Kahne | Chevrolet | 26 | 29.901 | 1.139 | 0.014 | 180.596 |
30 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | 26 | 29.921 | 1.159 | 0.020 | 180.475 |
31 | 32 | Matt DiBenedetto | Ford | 12 | 30.491 | 1.729 | 0.570 | 177.101 |
32 | 15 | Ross Chastain | Chevrolet | 23 | 30.586 | 1.824 | 0.095 | 176.551 |
33 | 23 | J.J. Yeley | Toyota | 18 | 30.743 | 1.981 | 0.157 | 175.650 |
34 | 72 | Corey Lajoie | Chevrolet | 16 | 30.813 | 2.051 | 0.070 | 175.251 |
35 | 00 | Landon Cassill | Chevrolet | 29 | 30.829 | 2.067 | 0.016 | 175.160 |
36 | 51 | B.J. McLeod | Chevrolet | 15 | 30.951 | 2.189 | 0.122 | 174.469 |
37 | 07 | Jesse Little | Chevrolet | 10 | 31.084 | 2.322 | 0.133 | 173.723 |
38 | 66 | Timmy Hill | Toyota | 10 | 31.354 | 2.592 | 0.270 | 172.227 |
39 | 99 | Garrett Smithley | Chevrolet | 23 | 31.392 | 2.630 | 0.038 | 172.018 |
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