Kyle Busch paces final NASCAR Cup practice at Pocono

Busch posted his fast lap (174.588 mph) on his first lap on the track in the 1 hour, 20-minute session. Busch starts fifth in Sunday’s Pocono 400.

“It’s certainly been pretty good last few races here at Pocono, being the defending winner of the fall race. You know, it certainly is pretty cool to come back here and try to do it again, especially after last week, and the momentum that we’ve kind of had on our side for the year, and especially from last week,” Busch said.

“Every week is a new week. Every week is different. We always just try to keep improving and continuing to build up our performance and keep it going for the rest of this regular season.”

Kevin Harvick was second-fastest (174.115 mph) and Martin Truex Jr. was third (173.953 mph). Alex Bowman and Aric Almirola both jumped to the fourth and fifth positions late in the session.

Completing the Top were Kyle Larson, pole-winner Ryan Blaney, Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano and Jamie McMurray.

Midway through the session, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spun off Turn 2 but kept his No. 17 Ford off the wall.

“We’ve been really loose, really all weekend. Yesterday, we were looking for handling and speed but I felt like we’ve closed the gap on the Top 10 on speed, now we’re just trying to find the handling,” he said.

“We’ve been a little bit loose, a little bit tight. I feel like I never really practice well here. At Pocono, we race a little better than we practice. We’ll see. We’re trying to get some more speed in it.”

Stenhouse ended up 19th fastest.

Three drivers had to sit out the final 15 minutes of practice – Cole Custer and Derrike Cope (late to qualifying inspection) and Daniel Suarez (failed qualifying inspection twice).

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	33	51.550			174.588
2	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	36	51.690	0.140	0.140	174.115
3	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	30	51.738	0.188	0.048	173.953
4	88	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	40	51.826	0.276	0.088	173.658
5	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	42	51.853	0.303	0.027	173.568
6	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	37	51.885	0.335	0.032	173.461
7	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	32	51.915	0.365	0.030	173.360
8	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	38	51.922	0.372	0.007	173.337
9	22	Joey Logano	Ford	49	51.924	0.374	0.002	173.330
10	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	44	51.955	0.405	0.031	173.227
11	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	34	51.960	0.410	0.005	173.210
12	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	31	51.964	0.414	0.004	173.197
13	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	34	51.984	0.434	0.020	173.130
14	20	Erik Jones	Toyota	34	52.067	0.517	0.083	172.854
15	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	27	52.082	0.532	0.015	172.804
16	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	40	52.112	0.562	0.030	172.705
17	21	Paul Menard	Ford	29	52.159	0.609	0.047	172.549
18	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	32	52.170	0.620	0.011	172.513
19	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	26	52.173	0.623	0.003	172.503
20	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	26	52.190	0.640	0.017	172.447
21	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	25	52.254	0.704	0.064	172.236
22	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	30	52.363	0.813	0.109	171.877
23	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.	Chevrolet	24	52.450	0.900	0.087	171.592
24	6	Matt Kenseth	Ford	26	52.480	0.930	0.030	171.494
25	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	24	52.482	0.932	0.002	171.487
26	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	17	52.482	0.932	0.000	171.487
27	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	22	52.504	0.954	0.022	171.416
28	38	David Ragan	Ford	35	52.520	0.970	0.016	171.363
29	95	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	24	52.568	1.018	0.048	171.207
30	51	Cole Custer	Chevrolet	33	52.681	1.131	0.113	170.840
31	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	19	52.821	1.271	0.140	170.387
32	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	22	52.984	1.434	0.163	169.863
33	15	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	15	53.648	2.098	0.664	167.760
34	00	Landon Cassill	Chevrolet	17	53.803	2.253	0.155	167.277
35	72	Cole Whitt	Chevrolet	15	53.931	2.381	0.128	166.880
36	23	Gray Gaulding	Toyota	10	54.082	2.532	0.151	166.414
37	7	J.J. Yeley	Chevrolet	10	54.350	2.800	0.268	165.593
38	99	Derrike Cope	Chevrolet	15	54.702	3.152	0.352	164.528