Daniel Suarez tops Kyle Busch in Saturday's first Cup practice
Daniel Suarez paced Saturday’s first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice session at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Photo by: Nigel Kinrade / NKP / Motorsport Images
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 |
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