Kyle Larson leads Ganassi 1-2 in pre-qualifying practice at Phoenix

Teammates Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray traded the top spot on the leaderboard during the session with Larson moving out front just as the session came to a close.

Larson’s average lap speed of 138.281 mph just surpassed McMurray (137.762 mph). Kyle Busch ended up third (137.662 mph).

“Qualifying here is all about that third round,” McMurray said after the session. “Qualifying here (today) is an hour or so earlier than it usually is. That’s going to be a little different. Typically the sun is going down.

“Our Chevy has been pretty good. The practice is so short you just don’t have time to change a lot of things.”

Rookie William Byron had a strong session and finished fourth and Chase Elliott completed the top-five.

The rest of the Top 10: Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Clint Bowyer and reigning series champion Martin Truex Jr.

With 32 minutes remaining in the session, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s No. 17 Ford appeared to get loose then slapped the wall fairly hard off Turn 2. It was his first lap at speed on the track.

“Something broke there,” Stenhouse immediately said over his team radio.

Stenhouse’s Roush Fenway Racing team elected to move to a backup car and under NASCAR’s new rule this season, the No. 17 will have to start Sunday’s race from the rear of the field regardless of where they qualify later Friday.

“We’ll go back and look at it and see what was wrong with it,” Stenhouse said later in the garage. “That’s definitely not the way we wanted to start our weekend. We’ll get our backup ready to qualify later today and see how it goes.”

Matt DiBenedetto lost the final 15 minutes of the session for failing pre-race inspection twice last weekend. Ross Chastain and Jimmie Johnson both lost 30 minutes of practice time because each failed pre-race inspection three times last weekend.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	9	26.034			138.281
2	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	11	26.132	0.098	0.098	137.762
3	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	8	26.151	0.117	0.019	137.662
4	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	16	26.159	0.125	0.008	137.620
5	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	8	26.160	0.126	0.001	137.615
6	22	Joey Logano	Ford	8	26.197	0.163	0.037	137.420
7	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	7	26.198	0.164	0.001	137.415
8	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	8	26.231	0.197	0.033	137.242
9	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	16	26.233	0.199	0.002	137.232
10	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	8	26.245	0.211	0.012	137.169
11	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	8	26.249	0.215	0.004	137.148
12	88	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	14	26.254	0.220	0.005	137.122
13	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	8	26.301	0.267	0.047	136.877
14	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	7	26.321	0.287	0.020	136.773
15	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	10	26.333	0.299	0.012	136.711
16	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	11	26.366	0.332	0.033	136.539
17	20	Erik Jones	Toyota	10	26.374	0.340	0.008	136.498
18	21	Paul Menard	Ford	11	26.429	0.395	0.055	136.214
19	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	13	26.445	0.411	0.016	136.132
20	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	10	26.447	0.413	0.002	136.121
21	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	8	26.459	0.425	0.012	136.060
22	38	David Ragan	Ford	12	26.471	0.437	0.012	135.998
23	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	12	26.474	0.440	0.003	135.982
24	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	7	26.485	0.451	0.011	135.926
25	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.	Chevrolet	18	26.534	0.500	0.049	135.675
26	95	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	8	26.597	0.563	0.063	135.354
27	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	17	26.627	0.593	0.030	135.201
28	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	7	26.630	0.596	0.003	135.186
29	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	10	26.683	0.649	0.053	134.917
30	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	9	26.723	0.689	0.040	134.715
31	96	D.J. Kennington	Toyota	9	27.580	1.546	0.857	130.529
32	23	Gray Gaulding	Toyota	3	27.640	1.606	0.060	130.246
33	72	Corey Lajoie	Chevrolet	5	27.708	1.674	0.068	129.926
34	15	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	3	27.856	1.822	0.148	129.236
35	00	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Chevrolet	8	27.893	1.859	0.037	129.065
36	51	Timmy Hill	Chevrolet	5	28.126	2.092	0.233	127.995
37	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford		0.000			0.000