Truex tops second Michigan practice, Johnson spins

Truex’s single-lap speed was 198.385mph topped the speed chart on Saturday morning. Kyle Busch was second quick followed by Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Blaney, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson, Erik Jones, Joey Logano and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

“Here, like anywhere else this year, it seems like you need to just find a way to balance it – short run speed with the long run speed,” Truex said. “You kind of have to have long run speed to put yourself in position to win and then seems to always come down to short runs and cautions towards the end of the race and you need to be able to go on short runs, so just try to balance those two things out and get as much speed out of the car as we can and these guys do a great job of that, so looking forward to it and seeing what we can do.”

In the early moments of the 55-minute session, Truex Jr. posted the top speed of 196.920mph followed polesitter Kyle Larson (196.775mph), Denny Hamlin (196.587mph), Kyle Busch, Harvick, Jones, Johnson, Blaney, Earnhardt Jr., Logano and Kurt Busch,

Just after the 15-minute mark, Jones eclipsed his Furniture Row Racing teammate with a lap of 197.212mph. But the rookies time atop the speed chart was short-lived as Kyle Busch bumped him with a lap of 197.938mph.

Half-way into practice, Kyle Busch remained the fastest in single-run laps, Blaney moved up to P2 (197.320mph) with Jones, Earnhardt (196.942mph), Truex, Logano, Harvick, Larson and Clint Bowyer rounded out the top 10.

Johnson jumped up to second at the 32-minute mark with a lap of 197.341mph but on his next lap, he lost control of the No. 48 Chevy coming off of Turn 4 barely missing his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kasey Kahne who was running right behind him. Johnson avoided the wall but came through the grass and damaged the splitter. The team elected to go to a backup car.

“I got loose into Turn 3 and fought it for a long time and unfortunately came around,” Johnson said. “Did a nice job of keeping it off the outside wall, but came back down the hill and into the grass and the front end dug in pretty good. I’m pretty surprised the guys feel like the damage isn’t too bad and they can get that stuff pulled back out and get the shape of the body back.

“So, we are out for the rest of this practice and we will get back on-track for the second one. Not the way we wanted to start the day, but it is what it is.”

NASCAR yellow-flagged practice but cars were back on the track 36 minutes to go and Kyle Busch leading the session in single-lap runs.

With 15-minutes remaining Truex vaulted to the top of the speed chart with a speed of 198.385mph. Kyle Busch was second followed by Johnson, Blaney and Keselowski. Five minutes later, Harvick moved up to fifth with a lap of 197.287mph.

Kyle Busch (196.876mph) had the fastest Best 10 consecutive lap averages. Larson was second (196.095mph) followed by Hamlin (195.901mph), Jones (195.714mph) and Harvick (195.684mph). Johnson, Earnhardt, McMurray, Kahne and Suarez rounded out the top 10 speeds in the category.

Four cars were penalized with 15-minute holds:

Jamie McMurray for being late to pre-qualifying inspection.

Ty Dillon, Ryan Newman and Matt DiBenedetto for failing pre-qualifying inspection multiple times.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	22	36.293			198.385
2	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	29	36.375	0.082	0.082	197.938
3	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	15	36.485	0.192	0.110	197.341
4	21	Ryan Blaney	Ford	21	36.489	0.196	0.004	197.320
5	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	37	36.495	0.202	0.006	197.287
6	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	17	36.495	0.202	0.000	197.287
7	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	24	36.503	0.210	0.008	197.244
8	77	Erik Jones	Toyota	26	36.509	0.216	0.006	197.212
9	22	Joey Logano	Ford	21	36.539	0.246	0.030	197.050
10	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	34	36.556	0.263	0.017	196.958
11	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	21	36.595	0.302	0.039	196.748
12	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	28	36.604	0.311	0.009	196.700
13	20	Matt Kenseth	Toyota	25	36.624	0.331	0.020	196.592
14	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	29	36.625	0.332	0.001	196.587
15	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	26	36.687	0.394	0.062	196.255
16	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	31	36.710	0.417	0.023	196.132
17	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	17	36.751	0.458	0.041	195.913
18	24	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	26	36.757	0.464	0.006	195.881
19	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	20	36.765	0.472	0.008	195.838
20	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	15	36.789	0.496	0.024	195.711
21	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	17	36.869	0.576	0.080	195.286
22	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	18	36.911	0.618	0.042	195.064
23	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	18	36.952	0.659	0.041	194.847
24	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	14	37.001	0.708	0.049	194.589
25	10	Danica Patrick	Ford	25	37.002	0.709	0.001	194.584
26	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	17	37.014	0.721	0.012	194.521
27	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.	Ford	27	37.047	0.754	0.033	194.348
28	95	Michael McDowell	Chevrolet	22	37.071	0.778	0.024	194.222
29	38	David Ragan	Ford	17	37.148	0.855	0.077	193.819
30	27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	24	37.173	0.880	0.025	193.689
31	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	19	37.459	1.166	0.286	192.210
32	23	Ryan Sieg	Toyota	14	37.789	1.496	0.330	190.532
33	15	Reed Sorenson	Chevrolet	16	38.157	1.864	0.368	188.694
34	83	Corey Lajoie	Toyota	16	38.234	1.941	0.077	188.314
35	72	Cole Whitt	Chevrolet	13	38.329	2.036	0.095	187.847
36	33	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Chevrolet	24	38.334	2.041	0.005	187.823
37	34	Landon Cassill	Ford	9	39.021	2.728	0.687	184.516