Jimmie Johnson tops incident-marred practice; Hamlin wrecks

Johnson, who wrecked with Martin Truex Jr. battling for the lead on the last lap of last year’s Roval race, posted an average lap speed of 103.152 mph at the conclusion of the 50-minute session.

Kyle Larson ended up second (103.088 mph) and William Byron was third (102.453 mph). Clint Bowyer and Matt DiBenedetto rounded out the top-five.

Competing the top-10 were Chase Elliott, Erik Jones, Daniel Suarez, Ryan Preece and Ryan Blaney.

About nine minutes into the session, Parker Kligerman made contact with the Turn 1 wall to bring out a caution. 

Kligerman’s team eventually decided to move to a backup car and he will have to start Sunday’s race from the rear of the field.

With 22 minutes in, Denny Hamlin spun off Turn 5 and slammed into the tire barrier doing extensive damage to his No. 11 Toyota. His team moved to a backup car which means Hamlin will also have to start Sunday’s race from the rear of the field.

“I just put us behind the eight-ball here,” Hamlin said. “It stinks but I think our backup car will be fine and we’ll have a good race on Sunday.”

Joe Nemechek hit the wall in the inner loop about 32 minutes into the session to bring out another caution. He was able to drive back to pit road.

With less than five minutes left in the session, Bubba Wallace spun through Turn 5 to bring out another caution. 

Austin Cindric drove Front Row Motorsports’ No. 34 Ford in the practice session, subbing for regular driver Michael McDowell. He ended up 24th fastest.

McDowell was transported to a local hospital Friday morning suffering from abdominal pain.

Cla	#	Driver		Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	48	Jimmie Johnson		Chevrolet	13	1'20.968			103.152
2	42	Kyle Larson		Chevrolet	10	1'21.018	0.050	0.050	103.088
3	24	William Byron		Chevrolet	11	1'21.520	0.552	0.502	102.453
4	14	Clint Bowyer		Ford	15	1'21.555	0.587	0.035	102.409
5	95	Matt DiBenedetto		Toyota	14	1'21.562	0.594	0.007	102.401
6	9	Chase Elliott		Chevrolet	13	1'21.717	0.749	0.155	102.206
7	20	Erik Jones		Toyota	10	1'21.837	0.869	0.120	102.057
8	41	Daniel Suarez		Ford	10	1'21.954	0.986	0.117	101.911
9	47	Ryan Preece		Chevrolet	13	1'22.148	1.180	0.194	101.670
10	12	Ryan Blaney		Ford	9	1'22.207	1.239	0.059	101.597
11	37	Chris Buescher		Chevrolet	10	1'22.208	1.240	0.001	101.596
12	38	David Ragan		Ford	15	1'22.351	1.383	0.143	101.420
13	18	Kyle Busch		Toyota	8	1'22.383	1.415	0.032	101.380
14	2	Brad Keselowski		Ford	15	1'22.447	1.479	0.064	101.301
15	22	Joey Logano		Ford	13	1'22.475	1.507	0.028	101.267
16	13	Ty Dillon		Chevrolet	14	1'22.685	1.717	0.210	101.010
17	88	Alex Bowman		Chevrolet	6	1'22.850	1.882	0.165	100.809
18	1	Kurt Busch		Chevrolet	8	1'22.940	1.972	0.090	100.699
19	10	Aric Almirola		Ford	16	1'23.165	2.197	0.225	100.427
20	21	Paul Menard		Ford	12	1'23.205	2.237	0.040	100.379
21	19	Martin Truex Jr.		Toyota	12	1'23.232	2.264	0.027	100.346
22	4	Kevin Harvick		Ford	16	1'23.334	2.366	0.102	100.223
23	8	Daniel Hemric		Chevrolet	15	1'23.436	2.468	0.102	100.101
24	34	Austin Cindric		Ford	15	1'23.479	2.511	0.043	100.049
25	11	Denny Hamlin		Toyota	6	1'23.585	2.617	0.106	99.922
26	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		Ford	11	1'23.719	2.751	0.134	99.762
27	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.		Chevrolet	11	1'23.860	2.892	0.141	99.595
28	6	Ryan Newman		Ford	12	1'23.963	2.995	0.103	99.472
29	32	Corey Lajoie		Ford	13	1'24.086	3.118	0.123	99.327
30	3	Austin Dillon		Chevrolet	15	1'24.671	3.703	0.585	98.641
31	51	Cody Ware		Chevrolet	8	1'24.752	3.784	0.081	98.546
32	36	Matt Tifft		Ford	10	1'24.833	3.865	0.081	98.452
33	96	Parker Kligerman		Toyota	3	1'25.392	4.424	0.559	97.808
34	00	Landon Cassill		Chevrolet	11	1'25.457	4.489	0.065	97.733
35	15	Ross Chastain		Chevrolet	2	1'25.535	4.567	0.078	97.644
36	52	Garrett Smithley		Chevrolet	5	1'26.355	5.387	0.820	96.717
37	53	Josh Bilicki		Chevrolet	4	1'26.934	5.966	0.579	96.073
38	77	Reed Sorenson		Chevrolet	4	1'30.845	9.877	3.911	91.937
39	66	Timmy Hill		Toyota	4	3'37.263	2'16.295	2'06.418	38.442
40	27	Joe Nemechek		Chevrolet	2	8'08.446	6'47.478	4'31.183	17.099