Kevin Harvick tops Erik Jones in Saturday's first practice at Pocono

Harvick, who now has a series-high six wins this seasons, has never won at Pocono. He topped the leaderboard with an average lap speed of 174.965 mph, which he set very early in the 55-minute session.

“Rodney (Childers, crew chief) and the organization itself has put a lot of effort into this particular weekend trying to get to Victory Lane and take that race off the list,” Harvick said.

“It’s a place I enjoy going – not so much the place I enjoyed going in my previous life before I came to Stewart-Haas Racing. It was never a track we ran very well at, but we’ve come to find out that if you have the cars where they need to be and the people around you, things are much different.”

Erik Jones ended up second-fastest (174.931 mph) and Ryan Blaney was third (174.402 mph). Denny Hamlin and Clint Bowyer completed the top-five.

“I'm a little bit loose into (Turn) 3, a little bit loose off of (Turn) 3 but I'm tight off of (Turn) 1,” Hamlin said over his radio after moving up to second at one point. “I'm still tight center of (Turn) 3, so I can't pick up the gas as soon as I want, when I do, that's when I kind of spin the back out loose, late exit.”

Rounding out the Top 10 were William Byron, Kyle Busch, Daniel Suarez, Martin Truex Jr. and Chase Elliott.

About 14 minutes into the session, J.J. Yeley spun off Turn 2 but was able to keep his No. 23 Toyota off the wall.

Brad Keselowski reported electrical problems on his No. 2 Ford about 18 minutes into the session and completed just one lap before he returned to the garage.

“I went to one battery and it seems to be trying to work here,” he said over his team radio. “It shut back off. I have power but it last for three seconds tops.”

Keselowski was able to return to the track with about 17 minutes left in the session. He ended up 18th fastest and completed nine laps.

Five drivers – Harvick, Hamlin, Byron, Chris Buescher and B.J. McLeod – were forced to sit out the final 15 minutes of practice because they failed pre-race inspection twice last weekend at New Hampshire.

Reed Sorenson sat out the final 15 minutes of practice for being late to pre-qualifying inspection at Chicagoland.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	7	51.439			174.965
2	20	Erik Jones	Toyota	12	51.449	0.010	0.010	174.931
3	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	6	51.605	0.166	0.156	174.402
4	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	16	51.776	0.337	0.171	173.826
5	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	13	51.902	0.463	0.126	173.404
6	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	14	51.927	0.488	0.025	173.320
7	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	12	51.932	0.493	0.005	173.304
8	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	13	51.975	0.536	0.043	173.160
9	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	9	51.992	0.553	0.017	173.104
10	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	16	52.013	0.574	0.021	173.034
11	22	Joey Logano	Ford	18	52.034	0.595	0.021	172.964
12	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	12	52.042	0.603	0.008	172.937
13	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	15	52.043	0.604	0.001	172.934
14	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	17	52.065	0.626	0.022	172.861
15	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	21	52.080	0.641	0.015	172.811
16	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	11	52.099	0.660	0.019	172.748
17	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	13	52.162	0.723	0.063	172.539
18	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	9	52.177	0.738	0.015	172.490
19	88	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	22	52.218	0.779	0.041	172.354
20	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.	Chevrolet	10	52.348	0.909	0.130	171.926
21	21	Paul Menard	Ford	10	52.373	0.934	0.025	171.844
22	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	9	52.429	0.990	0.056	171.661
23	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	13	52.500	1.061	0.071	171.429
24	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	13	52.535	1.096	0.035	171.314
25	6	Matt Kenseth	Ford	10	52.557	1.118	0.022	171.243
26	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	9	52.595	1.156	0.038	171.119
27	95	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	10	52.644	1.205	0.049	170.960
28	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	11	52.648	1.209	0.004	170.947
29	38	David Ragan	Ford	16	52.877	1.438	0.229	170.206
30	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	13	52.993	1.554	0.116	169.834
31	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	10	53.146	1.707	0.153	169.345
32	15	Gray Gaulding	Chevrolet	5	53.748	2.309	0.602	167.448
33	96	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Toyota	11	53.951	2.512	0.203	166.818
34	23	J.J. Yeley	Toyota	5	54.088	2.649	0.137	166.396
35	7	Reed Sorenson	Chevrolet	3	54.189	2.750	0.101	166.085
36	72	Corey Lajoie	Chevrolet	13	54.316	2.877	0.127	165.697
37	00	Landon Cassill	Chevrolet	6	54.359	2.920	0.043	165.566
38	99	Kyle Weatherman	Chevrolet	10	54.988	3.549	0.629	163.672
39	51	B.J. McLeod	Chevrolet	5	55.104	3.665	0.116	163.328