Kurt Busch tops Friday's first Cup practice at Kentucky
Kurt Busch rocketed to the top of the speed chart in the final minutes to top Friday’s first NASCAR Cup Series practice.
Photo by: Rusty Jarrett / NKP / Motorsport Images
In the final three minutes of the 50-minute session, Busch posted an average lap speed of 183.742 mph as several teams elected to make mock qualifying runs.
Aric Almirola ended up second (183.542 mph) and his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Daniel Suarez was third (183.101 mph). Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch – who has won races in four different series at the track – completed the top-five.
In eight career Cup starts at Kentucky, Kurt Busch’s best finish was fourth in 2016. In his most recent outing last year, he ended up sixth after leading the second-most laps (45) in the race.
Rounding out the top-10 in practice were Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, Erik Jones and Clint Bowyer.
All four SHR cars ended up in the top-10 as well as both Chip Ganassi Racing teams.
Cla | # | Driver | Manufacturer | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Kurt Busch | Chevrolet | 29 | 29.389 | 183.742 | |||
2 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Ford | 26 | 29.421 | 0.032 | 0.032 | 183.542 | |
3 | 41 | Daniel Suarez | Ford | 27 | 29.492 | 0.103 | 0.071 | 183.101 | |
4 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | 27 | 29.553 | 0.164 | 0.061 | 182.723 | |
5 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 33 | 29.581 | 0.192 | 0.028 | 182.550 | |
6 | 42 | Kyle Larson | Chevrolet | 41 | 29.646 | 0.257 | 0.065 | 182.149 | |
7 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Ford | 41 | 29.657 | 0.268 | 0.011 | 182.082 | |
8 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Ford | 40 | 29.671 | 0.282 | 0.014 | 181.996 | |
9 | 20 | Erik Jones | Toyota | 27 | 29.681 | 0.292 | 0.010 | 181.935 | |
10 | 14 | Clint Bowyer | Ford | 40 | 29.703 | 0.314 | 0.022 | 181.800 | |
11 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Ford | 25 | 29.718 | 0.329 | 0.015 | 181.708 | |
12 | 22 | Joey Logano | Ford | 34 | 29.728 | 0.339 | 0.010 | 181.647 | |
13 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 39 | 29.738 | 0.349 | 0.010 | 181.586 | |
14 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Chevrolet | 51 | 29.807 | 0.418 | 0.069 | 181.165 | |
15 | 24 | William Byron | Chevrolet | 30 | 29.860 | 0.471 | 0.053 | 180.844 | |
16 | 21 | Paul Menard | Ford | 34 | 29.861 | 0.472 | 0.001 | 180.838 | |
17 | 88 | Alex Bowman | Chevrolet | 38 | 29.864 | 0.475 | 0.003 | 180.820 | |
18 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | 25 | 29.867 | 0.478 | 0.003 | 180.802 | |
19 | 8 | Daniel Hemric | Chevrolet | 32 | 29.884 | 0.495 | 0.017 | 180.699 | |
20 | 95 | Matt DiBenedetto | Toyota | 30 | 29.909 | 0.520 | 0.025 | 180.548 | |
21 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Ford | 25 | 29.946 | 0.557 | 0.037 | 180.325 | |
22 | 36 | Matt Tifft | Ford | 19 | 29.975 | 0.586 | 0.029 | 180.150 | |
23 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | 26 | 29.989 | 0.600 | 0.014 | 180.066 | |
24 | 37 | Chris Buescher | Chevrolet | 31 | 30.006 | 0.617 | 0.017 | 179.964 | |
25 | 38 | David Ragan | Ford | 35 | 30.112 | 0.723 | 0.106 | 179.330 | |
26 | 6 | Ryan Newman | Ford | 21 | 30.116 | 0.727 | 0.004 | 179.307 | |
27 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Ford | 33 | 30.167 | 0.778 | 0.051 | 179.004 | |
28 | 32 | Corey Lajoie | Ford | 21 | 30.194 | 0.805 | 0.027 | 178.843 | |
29 | 43 | Darrell Wallace Jr. | Chevrolet | 30 | 30.243 | 0.854 | 0.049 | 178.554 | |
30 | 13 | Ty Dillon | Chevrolet | 26 | 30.303 | 0.914 | 0.060 | 178.200 | |
31 | 47 | Ryan Preece | Chevrolet | 31 | 30.322 | 0.933 | 0.019 | 178.089 | |
32 | 15 | Ross Chastain | Chevrolet | 31 | 30.475 | 1.086 | 0.153 | 177.194 | |
33 | 51 | Bayley Currey | Ford | 18 | 30.773 | 1.384 | 0.298 | 175.479 | |
34 | 52 | B.J. McLeod | Chevrolet | 9 | 30.898 | 1.509 | 0.125 | 174.769 | |
35 | 77 | Quin Houff | Chevrolet | 21 | 31.035 | 1.646 | 0.137 | 173.997 | |
36 | 00 | Landon Cassill | Chevrolet | 32 | 31.143 | 1.754 | 0.108 | 173.394 |
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