Kevin Harvick leads the way in final Cup practice at Phoenix

Harvick completed a sweep of Saturday’s two practice sessions at ISM Raceway near Phoenix, including the leading way in the final session with an average lap speed at 134.544 mph.

Harvick posted the lap right at the start of the session and was forced to sit out the final 15 minutes because his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford twice failed pre-qualifying inspection on Friday. He also topped the charts in ten lap averages.

His dominance in Saturday’s practices in both short and long runs impressed four-time Cup champion and Fox TV analyst Jeff Gordon.

“I just don’t want to see someone who is fast,” Gordon said. “I want to see someone who is fast and consistent and that’s Kevin Harvick right now. He’s both.”

Harvick, who will start 10th in Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500, ended Saturday’s final session also fastest among those drivers who ran at least 10 and 15 consecutive laps.

Jamie McMurray was second-fastest in single-lap runs in the session (134.504 mph), pole-winner Martin Truex Jr. was third (134.454 mph), Aric Almirola (134.213 mph) and Alex Bowman completed the top-five (134.193 mph).

Harvick’s teammate, Almirola, said his No. 10 Ford was “really good.”

“I think we still need a little bit more to be has good as (Harvick). He’s really strong,” Almirola said. “We unload every Friday with no notebook. We don’t really know what to do for us and we kind of gauge ourselves off our teammates.

“We saw that at Atlanta and we’re seeing it again this weekend. I feel as we build a notebook, we’ll unload better and that will allow us to get even better throughout the weekend.”

Completing the Top 10 were Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch, Erik Jones and Denny Hamlin.

Matt DiBenedetto was also forced to sit out the final 15 minutes of the practice session for twice failing pre-qualifying inspection on Friday.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	47	26.757			134.544
2	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	51	26.765	0.008	0.008	134.504
3	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	56	26.775	0.018	0.010	134.454
4	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	48	26.823	0.066	0.048	134.213
5	88	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	47	26.827	0.070	0.004	134.193
6	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	51	26.830	0.073	0.003	134.178
7	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	49	26.842	0.085	0.012	134.118
8	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	50	26.858	0.101	0.016	134.038
9	20	Erik Jones	Toyota	43	26.867	0.110	0.009	133.993
10	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	51	26.868	0.111	0.001	133.988
11	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	56	26.895	0.138	0.027	133.854
12	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	50	26.913	0.156	0.018	133.764
13	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	60	26.938	0.181	0.025	133.640
14	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	39	26.940	0.183	0.002	133.630
15	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	45	26.946	0.189	0.006	133.601
16	21	Paul Menard	Ford	45	26.972	0.215	0.026	133.472
17	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	44	26.978	0.221	0.006	133.442
18	22	Joey Logano	Ford	67	26.981	0.224	0.003	133.427
19	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	50	27.015	0.258	0.034	133.259
20	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	43	27.028	0.271	0.013	133.195
21	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	42	27.063	0.306	0.035	133.023
22	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	50	27.070	0.313	0.007	132.989
23	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	42	27.078	0.321	0.008	132.949
24	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	27	27.096	0.339	0.018	132.861
25	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	38	27.145	0.388	0.049	132.621
26	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	40	27.146	0.389	0.001	132.616
27	38	David Ragan	Ford	52	27.173	0.416	0.027	132.484
28	95	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	36	27.227	0.470	0.054	132.222
29	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.	Chevrolet	54	27.252	0.495	0.025	132.100
30	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	23	27.298	0.541	0.046	131.878
31	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	55	27.325	0.568	0.027	131.747
32	15	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	32	27.542	0.785	0.217	130.709
33	72	Corey Lajoie	Chevrolet	26	27.562	0.805	0.020	130.615
34	96	D.J. Kennington	Toyota	35	27.595	0.838	0.033	130.458
35	23	Gray Gaulding	Toyota	29	27.732	0.975	0.137	129.814
36	51	Timmy Hill	Chevrolet	15	28.669	1.912	0.937	125.571