Kevin Harvick leads final practice with four SHR cars in top-five
Kevin Harvick, still looking for his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win of the season, topped Friday’s final practice at Michigan International Speedway.
Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford Mustang Mobil 1
Russell LaBounty / NKP / Motorsport Images
Harvick, who owns two career wins at Michigan including last August, topped the final speed chart with an average lap speed of 188.763 mph.
Kyle Busch, last weekend’s race winner at Pocono, was second (188.728 mph) and Harvick’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammate, Clint Bowyer was third (188.476 mph).
Daniel Suarez, who was fastest in Friday’s first practice, ended up fourth and fellow SHR driver Aric Almirola completed the top-five.
Suarez also had the fastest average lap speed (187.273 mph) among those drivers who ran at least 10 consecutive laps. Almirola and Jones were second and third-fastest, in that category.
“I wish we would have done something a little bitter with the bottom lane, maybe some traction compound in the third lane to really get that third lane burned in here,” Harvick said. “You can drag all the tires you want and it isn’t going to work. Try to get that third lane burned in.
“I have a question of what happens with the bottom lane based on what we did last year in the Xfinity race. Those are my concerns. How (the race) turns out? I would be guessing because there have been a few places we have gone that turned out different than I thought it was going to be.”
Rounding out the top-10 in practice were Kurt Busch, Erik Jones, Jimmie Johnson, Martin Truex Jr. and Alex Bowman.
Cla | # | Driver | Manufacturer | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Ford | 36 | 38.143 | 188.763 | |||
2 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 45 | 38.150 | 0.007 | 0.007 | 188.729 | |
3 | 14 | Clint Bowyer | Ford | 37 | 38.201 | 0.058 | 0.051 | 188.477 | |
4 | 41 | Daniel Suarez | Ford | 49 | 38.266 | 0.123 | 0.065 | 188.157 | |
5 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Ford | 51 | 38.313 | 0.170 | 0.047 | 187.926 | |
6 | 1 | Kurt Busch | Chevrolet | 33 | 38.327 | 0.184 | 0.014 | 187.857 | |
7 | 20 | Erik Jones | Toyota | 32 | 38.336 | 0.193 | 0.009 | 187.813 | |
8 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | 38 | 38.374 | 0.231 | 0.038 | 187.627 | |
9 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | 31 | 38.402 | 0.259 | 0.028 | 187.490 | |
10 | 88 | Alex Bowman | Chevrolet | 46 | 38.411 | 0.268 | 0.009 | 187.446 | |
11 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Ford | 27 | 38.430 | 0.287 | 0.019 | 187.354 | |
12 | 22 | Joey Logano | Ford | 48 | 38.436 | 0.293 | 0.006 | 187.324 | |
13 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Chevrolet | 40 | 38.448 | 0.305 | 0.012 | 187.266 | |
14 | 42 | Kyle Larson | Chevrolet | 35 | 38.457 | 0.314 | 0.009 | 187.222 | |
15 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Ford | 48 | 38.485 | 0.342 | 0.028 | 187.086 | |
16 | 24 | William Byron | Chevrolet | 28 | 38.508 | 0.365 | 0.023 | 186.974 | |
17 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 44 | 38.527 | 0.384 | 0.019 | 186.882 | |
18 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Ford | 25 | 38.571 | 0.428 | 0.044 | 186.669 | |
19 | 21 | Paul Menard | Ford | 32 | 38.623 | 0.480 | 0.052 | 186.417 | |
20 | 95 | Matt DiBenedetto | Toyota | 32 | 38.637 | 0.494 | 0.014 | 186.350 | |
21 | 8 | Daniel Hemric | Chevrolet | 35 | 38.639 | 0.496 | 0.002 | 186.340 | |
22 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | 31 | 38.669 | 0.526 | 0.030 | 186.196 | |
23 | 6 | Ryan Newman | Ford | 35 | 38.692 | 0.549 | 0.023 | 186.085 | |
24 | 37 | Chris Buescher | Chevrolet | 31 | 38.697 | 0.554 | 0.005 | 186.061 | |
25 | 47 | Ryan Preece | Chevrolet | 32 | 38.782 | 0.639 | 0.085 | 185.653 | |
26 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Ford | 29 | 38.829 | 0.686 | 0.047 | 185.428 | |
27 | 13 | Ty Dillon | Chevrolet | 39 | 38.852 | 0.709 | 0.023 | 185.319 | |
28 | 32 | Corey Lajoie | Ford | 22 | 38.869 | 0.726 | 0.017 | 185.238 | |
29 | 38 | David Ragan | Ford | 26 | 38.966 | 0.823 | 0.097 | 184.776 | |
30 | 36 | Matt Tifft | Ford | 34 | 38.988 | 0.845 | 0.022 | 184.672 | |
31 | 43 | Darrell Wallace Jr. | Chevrolet | 15 | 39.062 | 0.919 | 0.074 | 184.322 | |
32 | 00 | Landon Cassill | Chevrolet | 10 | 39.219 | 1.076 | 0.157 | 183.584 | |
33 | 51 | Kyle Weatherman | Chevrolet | 11 | 39.539 | 1.396 | 0.320 | 182.099 | |
34 | 52 | Josh Bilicki | Ford | 3 | 40.151 | 2.008 | 0.612 | 179.323 |
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