Kyle Busch fastest in Friday's shortened Cup practice session

Busch, who is fresh off his fourth Cup win of the season last weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, posted an average lap speed of 176.939 mph to top Friday’s only practice.

Alex Bowman ended up second-fastest (175.490 mph) and Clint Bowyer was third (175.486 mph). Kyle Larson and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top-five.

Completing the Top 10 were Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Paul Menard and Martin Truex Jr.

The start of the practice was delayed by 15 minutes as track workers continued to work to resolve weepers on the track left from rain overnight and early Friday morning.

“The hardest part of the track, for me, is probably Turn 1, and then Turn 2 is the second-hardest, and then Turn 3 is the third-hardest – Turn 3, last year, because of the patch they laid down,” Busch said.

“We couldn’t go down low and get underneath somebody and get a run on them because, when you come off the corner, you’re 8 to 10 mph slower than the guy on your outside and they’re just going to blow right by you going down the straightaway.”

The teams of Jimmie Johnson, Truex and Ross Chastain were all held out of the final 15 minutes of the practice session because each of their teams failed pre-race inspection twice last weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	5	50.865			176.939
2	88	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	8	51.285	0.420	0.420	175.490
3	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	12	51.286	0.421	0.001	175.486
4	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	5	51.296	0.431	0.010	175.452
5	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	11	51.347	0.482	0.051	175.278
6	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	5	51.377	0.512	0.030	175.176
7	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	9	51.416	0.551	0.039	175.043
8	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	9	51.469	0.604	0.053	174.863
9	21	Paul Menard	Ford	5	51.517	0.652	0.048	174.700
10	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	5	51.541	0.676	0.024	174.618
11	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	7	51.563	0.698	0.022	174.544
12	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	6	51.597	0.732	0.034	174.429
13	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	8	51.625	0.760	0.028	174.334
14	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	11	51.701	0.836	0.076	174.078
15	20	Erik Jones	Toyota	6	51.739	0.874	0.038	173.950
16	22	Joey Logano	Ford	11	51.803	0.938	0.064	173.735
17	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	5	51.816	0.951	0.013	173.692
18	6	Matt Kenseth	Ford	9	51.852	0.987	0.036	173.571
19	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	7	51.903	1.038	0.051	173.400
20	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	8	51.980	1.115	0.077	173.144
21	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	5	51.987	1.122	0.007	173.120
22	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	8	52.058	1.193	0.071	172.884
23	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.	Chevrolet	7	52.099	1.234	0.041	172.748
24	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	9	52.132	1.267	0.033	172.639
25	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	7	52.380	1.515	0.248	171.821
26	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	5	52.521	1.656	0.141	171.360
27	95	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	10	52.713	1.848	0.192	170.736
28	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	12	52.757	1.892	0.044	170.593
29	38	David Ragan	Ford	7	52.846	1.981	0.089	170.306
30	51	Cole Custer	Chevrolet	19	53.281	2.416	0.435	168.916
31	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	14	53.317	2.452	0.036	168.802
32	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	2	53.683	2.818	0.366	167.651
33	15	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	7	54.134	3.269	0.451	166.254
34	23	Gray Gaulding	Toyota	9	54.459	3.594	0.325	165.262
35	00	Landon Cassill	Chevrolet	13	54.564	3.699	0.105	164.944
36	7	J.J. Yeley	Chevrolet	9	54.690	3.825	0.126	164.564
37	72	Cole Whitt	Chevrolet	3	54.989	4.124	0.299	163.669
38	99	Derrike Cope	Chevrolet	4	55.087	4.222	0.098	163.378