Kyle Busch paces first Cup practice at New Hampshire

Busch, who started from the pole and won last fall’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at the track, posted the fastest average single-lap speed in Friday’s lone practice session.

Busch’s speed of 133.769 mph just edged the run from Kyle Larson (133.788 mph). Denny Hamlin was third, Erik Jones was fourth and Ryan Blaney completed the top-five.

“I think that Loudon sometimes is a more challenging race track to pass people on, but we’ve had a lot of success there and think we will again this weekend,” Busch said. “There is more time or opportunity for slipping and sliding and contact being made, being a short track, being a flat track.

“To be fast at Loudon, you have to have good brakes and you have to roll the center really well and get that good forward bite off the corners and make sure it sticks.”

Rounding out the Top 10 in practice were Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Alex Bowman, Martin Truex Jr. and Kurt Busch.

With about 17 minutes remaining in the 50-minute session, David Ragan got into the wall between Turns 3 and 4 to bring out a brief caution.

He drove his No. 38 Ford back to the garage. NASCAR checked the track for possible oil dropped but determined the track was clear.

Four drivers – Kyle Weatherman, B.J. McLeod, Blake Jones, and Johnson – were forced to sit out the final 15 minutes of the practice session for being late to pre-qualifying/race inspection last weekend at Kentucky Speedway.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	6	28.362			134.292
2	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	6	28.469	0.107	0.107	133.788
3	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	8	28.475	0.113	0.006	133.759
4	20	Erik Jones	Toyota	8	28.503	0.141	0.028	133.628
5	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	7	28.537	0.175	0.034	133.469
6	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	5	28.562	0.200	0.025	133.352
7	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	7	28.567	0.205	0.005	133.329
8	88	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	15	28.574	0.212	0.007	133.296
9	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	7	28.597	0.235	0.023	133.189
10	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	8	28.616	0.254	0.019	133.100
11	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	6	28.630	0.268	0.014	133.035
12	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	7	28.635	0.273	0.005	133.012
13	21	Paul Menard	Ford	8	28.671	0.309	0.036	132.845
14	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	4	28.700	0.338	0.029	132.711
15	22	Joey Logano	Ford	20	28.720	0.358	0.020	132.618
16	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	7	28.770	0.408	0.050	132.388
17	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	8	28.771	0.409	0.001	132.383
18	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	7	28.782	0.420	0.011	132.333
19	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	10	28.800	0.438	0.018	132.250
20	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	11	28.818	0.456	0.018	132.167
21	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.	Chevrolet	15	28.874	0.512	0.056	131.911
22	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	6	28.876	0.514	0.002	131.902
23	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	10	28.890	0.528	0.014	131.838
24	95	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	6	29.045	0.683	0.155	131.134
25	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	12	29.055	0.693	0.010	131.089
26	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	20	29.064	0.702	0.009	131.049
27	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	11	29.139	0.777	0.075	130.711
28	6	Matt Kenseth	Ford	6	29.153	0.791	0.014	130.649
29	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	11	29.173	0.811	0.020	130.559
30	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	5	29.239	0.877	0.066	130.264
31	38	David Ragan	Ford	5	29.390	1.028	0.151	129.595
32	15	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	8	29.470	1.108	0.080	129.243
33	00	Landon Cassill	Chevrolet	5	29.734	1.372	0.264	128.096
34	72	Corey Lajoie	Chevrolet	14	30.198	1.836	0.464	126.128
35	51	B.J. McLeod	Chevrolet	6	30.200	1.838	0.002	126.119
36	99	Kyle Weatherman	Chevrolet	12	30.268	1.906	0.068	125.836
37	23	Jones Blake	Toyota	10	31.231	2.869	0.963	121.956