Ricky Stenhouse Jr. tops Larson in final Darlington Cup practice
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. topped Friday’s final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice session at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.
Photo by: John Harrelson / NKP / Motorsport Images
Stenhouse’s average lap speed of 168.845 mph was set relatively early in the 50-minute session. Kyle Larson ended up second (168.764 mph) and William Byron was third (168.480 mph).
In six career starts at Darlington, Stenhouse’s best finish was 12th in last season’s Southern 500.
Kurt Busch, who topped the first session, ended up fourth and Matt DiBenedetto completed the top-five.
Rounding out the top-10 were Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Alex Bowman.
Larson had the fastest average lap speed (166.897 mph) among those drivers who ran at least 10 consecutive laps. Hamlin and Kyle Busch were second and third, respectively, in that category.
About 11 minutes into the session, Aric Almirola slammed into the wall, doing extensive damage to the right side of his No. 10 Ford.
The damage was severe enough that Almirola’s team elected to bring out his backup car, which means he’ll have to start Sunday night’s race from the rear of the field regardless of where he qualifies on Saturday.
Cla | # | Driver | Manufacturer | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Ford | 34 | 29.125 | 168.845 | |||
2 | 42 | Kyle Larson | Chevrolet | 42 | 29.139 | 0.014 | 0.014 | 168.764 | |
3 | 24 | William Byron | Chevrolet | 47 | 29.188 | 0.063 | 0.049 | 168.480 | |
4 | 1 | Kurt Busch | Chevrolet | 50 | 29.226 | 0.101 | 0.038 | 168.261 | |
5 | 95 | Matt DiBenedetto | Toyota | 38 | 29.228 | 0.103 | 0.002 | 168.250 | |
6 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Ford | 53 | 29.230 | 0.105 | 0.002 | 168.238 | |
7 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | 59 | 29.235 | 0.110 | 0.005 | 168.209 | |
8 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 49 | 29.245 | 0.120 | 0.010 | 168.152 | |
9 | 22 | Joey Logano | Ford | 61 | 29.275 | 0.150 | 0.030 | 167.980 | |
10 | 88 | Alex Bowman | Chevrolet | 43 | 29.291 | 0.166 | 0.016 | 167.888 | |
11 | 14 | Clint Bowyer | Ford | 44 | 29.296 | 0.171 | 0.005 | 167.859 | |
12 | 41 | Daniel Suarez | Ford | 49 | 29.318 | 0.193 | 0.022 | 167.733 | |
13 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Ford | 8 | 29.319 | 0.194 | 0.001 | 167.727 | |
14 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 51 | 29.321 | 0.196 | 0.002 | 167.716 | |
15 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Ford | 50 | 29.324 | 0.199 | 0.003 | 167.699 | |
16 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | 45 | 29.340 | 0.215 | 0.016 | 167.607 | |
17 | 37 | Chris Buescher | Chevrolet | 26 | 29.357 | 0.232 | 0.017 | 167.510 | |
18 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Chevrolet | 42 | 29.374 | 0.249 | 0.017 | 167.413 | |
19 | 20 | Erik Jones | Toyota | 45 | 29.387 | 0.262 | 0.013 | 167.339 | |
20 | 21 | Paul Menard | Ford | 44 | 29.416 | 0.291 | 0.029 | 167.174 | |
21 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Ford | 38 | 29.431 | 0.306 | 0.015 | 167.089 | |
22 | 47 | Ryan Preece | Chevrolet | 22 | 29.466 | 0.341 | 0.035 | 166.891 | |
23 | 6 | Ryan Newman | Ford | 41 | 29.553 | 0.428 | 0.087 | 166.399 | |
24 | 8 | Daniel Hemric | Chevrolet | 40 | 29.568 | 0.443 | 0.015 | 166.315 | |
25 | 32 | Corey Lajoie | Ford | 12 | 29.573 | 0.448 | 0.005 | 166.287 | |
26 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | 39 | 29.598 | 0.473 | 0.025 | 166.146 | |
27 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Ford | 38 | 29.613 | 0.488 | 0.015 | 166.062 | |
28 | 13 | Ty Dillon | Chevrolet | 41 | 29.621 | 0.496 | 0.008 | 166.017 | |
29 | 43 | Darrell Wallace Jr. | Chevrolet | 33 | 29.806 | 0.681 | 0.185 | 164.987 | |
30 | 36 | Matt Tifft | Ford | 46 | 29.816 | 0.691 | 0.010 | 164.932 | |
31 | 38 | David Ragan | Ford | 40 | 29.870 | 0.745 | 0.054 | 164.633 | |
32 | 00 | Landon Cassill | Chevrolet | 34 | 30.113 | 0.988 | 0.243 | 163.305 | |
33 | 54 | Garrett Smithley | Chevrolet | 7 | 31.191 | 2.066 | 1.078 | 157.661 | |
34 | 66 | Joey Gase | Toyota | 16 | 31.813 | 2.688 | 0.622 | 154.578 |
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