Kyle Busch leads the way in final practice at Chicagoland

Busch set the early pace in final practice with a lap of 180.252mph at Chicagoland Speedway.

Austin Dillon was second-quick (179.438mph) followed by Keselowski (179.289mph), Elliott (179.134mph), Bowyer (178.542mph), Hamlin (178.312mph), Blaney (177.515), Bayne, Landon Cassill and Ryan Newman.

“This is one of those places that is kind of like last week, tire wear is a big deal and being able to keep both right sides on it – you have the keep the right front and you have to keep the right rear on it,” Busch said. “I just haven’t been very good at being able to do that here in the long runs. We definitely have our work cut out for us with that and getting a good race package setup for Sunday.”

In the first five minutes, Stenhouse bounced up to eighth followed by McMurray then Bayne. At the 10-minute mark, the top 10 remained the same. Cassill dropped to 11th followed by Newman Larson, Danica Patrick, Paul Menard, Chris Buescher, David Ragan, Corey LaJoie, Cole Whitt and Brett Moffitt.

“I started pretty tight on exit, the entry was good,” said Hamlin after 19 laps.

But drivers in time out became the hot topic in final practice with half the field waiting on pit road until their penalties expired. The top 10 speeds remained the same after the first 15 minutes, once the first round penalized drivers were released that pylon quickly changed.

Joey Logano, Michael McDowell, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Matt DiBenedetto, Ty Dillon and Dale Earnhardt Jr., had 15-minute holds for failing qualifying inspection twice.

Truex was the first driver to post a time after serving his penalty. He was eighth-quick on his first lap — 177.871mph. Harvick climbed up to sixth (178.359mph). Logano bounced up to ninth with his first lap (177.643mph).

Blaney dropped to 10th-quick followed by Stenhouse Jr., McMurray, Trevor Bayne, Landon Cassill and Ryan Newman. Kyle Larson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Danica Patrick, Kurt Busch and Paul Menard rounded out the top 20.

“Way too loose off the wall,” Earnhardt said ofter his 10th lap.

At the 30-minute mark, NASCAR released the final group of penalized drivers — Aric Almirola and Jimmie Johnson — both failed qualifying inspection twice at Chicagoland and Richmond, as well as Erik Jones who failed qualifying inspection three times. Jones jumped up to 14th-quick (176.765mph), Almirola climbed up to 21st (176.108mph) and Johnson (175.701mph) ended up 24th on the speed chart.

With 10 minutes remaining on the clock, Busch led the top 10. Larson had posted the 11th fastest lap (177.357mph) and his 43 circuits were the most completed. Stenhouse, McMurray, Jones, Bayne, Cassill, Newman, Daniel Suarez, Earnhardt and Patrick rounded out the top 20.

“It’s eight numbers tight center off,” Kyle Busch said on his final run. Elliott and McMurray’s 53 laps were the most completed in the final practice session leading into the Tales of the Turtles 400 on Sunday.

Twenty-six cars posted Best 10 Consecutive Lap Averages with Harvick leading the category with a speed of 175.784mph. Kyle Busch was second (175.667mph) followed by Elliott (175.363mph), Truex (175.119mph), Hamlin (174.739mph), Austin Dillon (174.717mph), Logano (177.548mph), Keselowski (174.534mph), Bowyer (174.517mph) and Larson (174.397mph).

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	39	29.958			180.252
2	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	28	30.094	0.136	0.136	179.438
3	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	48	30.119	0.161	0.025	179.289
4	24	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	53	30.145	0.187	0.026	179.134
5	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	33	30.245	0.287	0.100	178.542
6	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	38	30.276	0.318	0.031	178.359
7	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	47	30.284	0.326	0.008	178.312
8	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	33	30.359	0.401	0.075	177.871
9	22	Joey Logano	Ford	49	30.398	0.440	0.039	177.643
10	21	Ryan Blaney	Ford	35	30.420	0.462	0.022	177.515
11	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	52	30.447	0.489	0.027	177.357
12	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	34	30.540	0.582	0.093	176.817
13	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	53	30.541	0.583	0.001	176.811
14	77	Erik Jones	Toyota	22	30.549	0.591	0.008	176.765
15	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	22	30.552	0.594	0.003	176.748
16	34	Landon Cassill	Ford	37	30.559	0.601	0.007	176.707
17	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	31	30.575	0.617	0.016	176.615
18	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	22	30.591	0.633	0.016	176.523
19	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	25	30.651	0.693	0.060	176.177
20	10	Danica Patrick	Ford	43	30.659	0.701	0.008	176.131
21	43	Aric Almirola	Ford	17	30.663	0.705	0.004	176.108
22	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	29	30.679	0.721	0.016	176.016
23	20	Matt Kenseth	Toyota	13	30.718	0.760	0.039	175.793
24	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	22	30.734	0.776	0.016	175.701
25	27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	31	30.811	0.853	0.077	175.262
26	95	Michael McDowell	Chevrolet	26	30.861	0.903	0.050	174.978
27	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	23	30.892	0.934	0.031	174.803
28	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	25	30.906	0.948	0.014	174.723
29	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	30	30.930	0.972	0.024	174.588
30	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	30	30.931	0.973	0.001	174.582
31	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	37	31.135	1.177	0.204	173.438
32	38	David Ragan	Ford	32	31.163	1.205	0.028	173.282
33	23	Corey Lajoie	Toyota	19	31.304	1.346	0.141	172.502
34	72	Cole Whitt	Chevrolet	11	31.523	1.565	0.219	171.303
35	83	Brett Moffitt	Toyota	23	31.586	1.628	0.063	170.962
36	33	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Chevrolet	25	31.734	1.776	0.148	170.164