Kurt Busch fastest in Saturday's first Cup practice at Texas

Busch’s average lap speed at 191.768 mph led the way over a pair of Toyotas – Denny Hamlin and Erik Jones – who have dominated much of the competition this season on 1.5-mile speedways.

Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott – who missed qualifying because his No. 24 Chevrolet failed to clear pre-qualifying inspection Friday – completed the top-five. Elliott ran the most laps (43) during the 55-minute session.

Rounding out the top 10 were Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Blaney, Daniel Suarez and Kasey Kahne.

Daniel Hemric continue to fill in Richard Childress Racing’s No. 27 Chevrolet for Paul Menard, who remained back in North Carolina after his wife gave birth to the couple’s second child on Wednesday.

Menard was expected in Texas for Saturday’s final practice and Sunday’s AAA 500. Hemric ended up posting the 29th-fastest speed.

Both Kyle Busch and Hamlin were forced to sit out the first 30 minutes of this practice session due to inspection violations. Both drivers also will miss the first 30 minutes of Saturday’s final practice session at Texas.

During the race, NASCAR released Cup team’s race sets of tires so they could put a “heat cycle” on them, or scuff them before Sunday’s race.

Larson posted the fastest average lap speed (189.152 mph) of the 12 drivers who ran at least 10 consecutive laps in the practice session. He was followed by Jones, Kyle Busch, Hamlin and Matt Kenseth.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	29	28.159			191.768
2	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	20	28.256	0.097	0.097	191.110
3	77	Erik Jones	Toyota	29	28.262	0.103	0.006	191.069
4	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	37	28.290	0.131	0.028	190.880
5	24	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	43	28.294	0.135	0.004	190.853
6	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	24	28.313	0.154	0.019	190.725
7	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	21	28.354	0.195	0.041	190.449
8	21	Ryan Blaney	Ford	20	28.358	0.199	0.004	190.422
9	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	29	28.365	0.206	0.007	190.375
10	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	41	28.416	0.257	0.051	190.034
11	20	Matt Kenseth	Toyota	41	28.417	0.258	0.001	190.027
12	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	31	28.423	0.264	0.006	189.987
13	22	Joey Logano	Ford	23	28.436	0.277	0.013	189.900
14	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	27	28.442	0.283	0.006	189.860
15	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	36	28.494	0.335	0.052	189.514
16	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	25	28.532	0.373	0.038	189.261
17	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	30	28.536	0.377	0.004	189.235
18	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	23	28.592	0.433	0.056	188.864
19	43	Aric Almirola	Ford	19	28.608	0.449	0.016	188.758
20	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	26	28.641	0.482	0.033	188.541
21	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	17	28.665	0.506	0.024	188.383
22	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	31	28.698	0.539	0.033	188.166
23	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	27	28.701	0.542	0.003	188.147
24	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	16	28.704	0.545	0.003	188.127
25	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	29	28.752	0.593	0.048	187.813
26	34	Landon Cassill	Ford	32	28.801	0.642	0.049	187.493
27	10	Danica Patrick	Ford	25	28.824	0.665	0.023	187.344
28	95	Michael McDowell	Chevrolet	21	28.837	0.678	0.013	187.259
29	27	Daniel Hemric	Chevrolet	23	28.901	0.742	0.064	186.845
30	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	30	28.939	0.780	0.038	186.599
31	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	22	29.066	0.907	0.127	185.784
32	38	David Ragan	Ford	22	29.114	0.955	0.048	185.478
33	23	Corey Lajoie	Toyota	16	29.302	1.143	0.188	184.288
34	72	Cole Whitt	Chevrolet	20	29.379	1.220	0.077	183.805
35	83	Gray Gaulding	Toyota	22	29.551	1.392	0.172	182.735
36	15	Reed Sorenson	Chevrolet	15	29.553	1.394	0.002	182.723
37	7	Joey Gase	Chevrolet	22	29.837	1.678	0.284	180.983
38	51	Ray Black Jr.	Chevrolet	19	30.027	1.868	0.190	179.838
39	33	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Chevrolet	13	30.044	1.885	0.017	179.736
40	66	David Starr	Chevrolet	14	30.114	1.955	0.070	179.319