Daniel Suarez tops Kyle Busch in Saturday's first Cup practice

Suarez set his session-best average lap speed of 182.143 mph early in the 50-minute session but Kyle ended up a close end (182.051 mph), posting his fast lap very near the session’s conclusion.

Austin Dillon (181.488 mph) ended up third, Ryan Blaney was fourth and Kevin Harvick completed the top-five.

Suarez has three Cup Series starts on Charlotte’s oval with one top-10 one top-10 finish. He has an average finishing position of 10.7 with 99.9 percent of all possible laps completed.

“This season has been very good so far but I’m looking to turn it into a great season,” Suárez said. “We are moving in the right direction and I’m looking forward to doing even better.

“We’ve had strong cars over the last month and a half and hopefully I can do my part as the driver and make it a great race this weekend.”

Rounding out the top-10 were Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer, Martin Truex Jr., Daniel Hemric and Erik Jones.

Austin Dillon posted the fastest average lap speed among drivers that completed at least 10 consecutive laps (180.639 mph). Hamlin and Hemric were second and third in that category, respectively.

Cla	#	Driver		Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	41	Daniel Suarez		Ford	49	29.647			182.143
2	18	Kyle Busch		Toyota	45	29.662	0.015	0.015	182.051
3	3	Austin Dillon		Chevrolet	48	29.754	0.107	0.092	181.488
4	12	Ryan Blaney		Ford	27	29.769	0.122	0.015	181.397
5	4	Kevin Harvick		Ford	35	29.774	0.127	0.005	181.366
6	11	Denny Hamlin		Toyota	52	29.780	0.133	0.006	181.330
7	14	Clint Bowyer		Ford	43	29.803	0.156	0.023	181.190
8	19	Martin Truex Jr.		Toyota	28	29.810	0.163	0.007	181.147
9	8	Daniel Hemric		Chevrolet	46	29.814	0.167	0.004	181.123
10	20	Erik Jones		Toyota	34	29.820	0.173	0.006	181.087
11	48	Jimmie Johnson		Chevrolet	42	29.834	0.187	0.014	181.002
12	13	Ty Dillon		Chevrolet	26	29.836	0.189	0.002	180.989
13	10	Aric Almirola		Ford	50	29.855	0.208	0.019	180.874
14	22	Joey Logano		Ford	43	29.862	0.215	0.007	180.832
15	9	Chase Elliott		Chevrolet	48	29.867	0.220	0.005	180.802
16	1	Kurt Busch		Chevrolet	43	29.898	0.251	0.031	180.614
17	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.		Chevrolet	41	29.925	0.278	0.027	180.451
18	2	Brad Keselowski		Ford	48	29.930	0.283	0.005	180.421
19	21	Paul Menard		Ford	37	29.983	0.336	0.053	180.102
20	47	Ryan Preece		Chevrolet	33	29.989	0.342	0.006	180.066
21	6	Ryan Newman		Ford	43	30.006	0.359	0.017	179.964
22	88	Alex Bowman		Chevrolet	48	30.007	0.360	0.001	179.958
23	24	William Byron		Chevrolet	33	30.043	0.396	0.036	179.742
24	95	Matt DiBenedetto		Toyota	44	30.054	0.407	0.011	179.677
25	42	Kyle Larson		Chevrolet	37	30.056	0.409	0.002	179.665
26	38	David Ragan		Ford	38	30.056	0.409	0.000	179.665
27	37	Chris Buescher		Chevrolet	35	30.068	0.421	0.012	179.593
28	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		Ford	33	30.098	0.451	0.030	179.414
29	34	Michael McDowell		Ford	34	30.131	0.484	0.033	179.217
30	36	Matt Tifft		Ford	26	30.219	0.572	0.088	178.696
31	32	Corey Lajoie		Ford	31	30.248	0.601	0.029	178.524
32	96	Parker Kligerman		Toyota	35	30.339	0.692	0.091	177.989
33	15	Ross Chastain		Chevrolet	32	30.415	0.768	0.076	177.544
34	00	Landon Cassill		Chevrolet	23	30.445	0.798	0.030	177.369
35	52	Bayley Currey		Chevrolet	10	30.526	0.879	0.081	176.898
36	53	B.J. McLeod		Chevrolet	3	30.797	1.150	0.271	175.342
37	77	Quin Houff		Chevrolet	10	30.999	1.352	0.202	174.199
38	51	Cody Ware		Ford	22	31.077	1.430	0.078	173.762
39	27	Reed Sorenson		Chevrolet	16	31.111	1.464	0.034	173.572
40	66	Joey Gase		Toyota	4	32.445	2.798	1.334	166.436