Practice report

NASCAR Cup Michigan II

Erik Jones fastest in Saturday's abbreviated first Cup practice

Michigan native Erik Jones led the way in Saturday morning’s abbreviated practice session at Michigan International Speedway.

Jim Utter

Edited: Sep 6, 2018, 8:55 AM

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Erik Jones, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota Camry DeWalt

Heavy fog Saturday morning delayed the start of the originally scheduled 55-minute session and even with NASCAR adding five minutes, teams only got about 15 minutes on the track.

Jones’ average lap speed at 200.150 mph remained at the top of the leaderboard the entire session. Rookie William Byron was second (199.678 mph) and Brad Keselowski third (199.358 mph). Clint Bowyer and Joey Logano completed the top-five.

“The track overall has aged pretty well over the last couple of years where it’s not so line sensitive and you don’t see anybody running up in the third groove by any means, but it’s definitely not to the point where if you get up there, you’re probably not going to wreck,” Jones said.

“It will be interesting to see as the weekend goes on especially after the Truck race with what these guys can do.”

Rounding out the Top 10 were Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, Paul Menard, pole winner Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick.

Five teams took advantage of the brief session to serve their 15-minute practice penalties.

Martin Truex Jr. was late to pre-race inspection at Watkins Glen; Kyle Busch, Daniel Suarez and Ryan Newman all failed to come to a complete stop after blowing the inner loop in practice at The Glen; and Darrell Wallace Jr. and B.J. McLeod were late to inspection Friday at Michigan.

Cla # Driver 4506 Laps Time Gap Interval Mph 1 20 United States Erik Jones Toyota 10 35.973 200.150 2 24 William Byron Chevrolet 10 36.058 0.085 0.085 199.678 3 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 11 36.116 0.143 0.058 199.358 4 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 10 36.137 0.164 0.021 199.242 5 22 Joey Logano Ford 10 36.181 0.208 0.044 198.999 6 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 11 36.186 0.213 0.005 198.972 7 88 United States Alex Bowman Chevrolet 10 36.197 0.224 0.011 198.912 8 21 Paul Menard Ford 11 36.197 0.224 0.000 198.912 9 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 11 36.210 0.237 0.013 198.840 10 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 10 36.221 0.248 0.011 198.780 11 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 10 36.278 0.305 0.057 198.467 12 42 United States Kyle Larson Chevrolet 14 36.296 0.323 0.018 198.369 13 41 Kurt Busch Ford 6 36.303 0.330 0.007 198.331 14 10 Aric Almirola Ford 17 36.375 0.402 0.072 197.938 15 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 9 36.406 0.433 0.031 197.770 16 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 11 36.410 0.437 0.004 197.748 17 1 United States Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 16 36.420 0.447 0.010 197.694 18 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 11 36.443 0.470 0.023 197.569 19 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 6 36.591 0.618 0.148 196.770 20 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 12 36.682 0.709 0.091 196.282 21 47 A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 6 36.721 0.748 0.039 196.073 22 38 United States David Ragan Ford 6 36.815 0.842 0.094 195.572 23 00 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 6 36.901 0.928 0.086 195.117 24 95 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 7 36.997 1.024 0.096 194.610 25 6 Trevor Bayne Ford 6 37.021 1.048 0.024 194.484 26 32 Matt DiBenedetto Ford 10 37.228 1.255 0.207 193.403 27 72 United States Corey Lajoie Chevrolet 7 37.317 1.344 0.089 192.942 28 96 Jeffrey Earnhardt Toyota 11 37.493 1.520 0.176 192.036 29 99 Gray Gaulding Chevrolet 5 38.060 2.087 0.567 189.175 30 15 Reed Sorenson Chevrolet 6 38.229 2.256 0.169 188.339 31 66 Timmy Hill Toyota 4 38.846 2.873 0.617 185.347 32 23 Jones Blake Toyota 15 38.854 2.881 0.008 185.309 33 18 United States Kyle Busch Toyota 34 78 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 35 31 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 36 19 Mexico Daniel Suarez Toyota 37 43 Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 38 34 Michael McDowell Ford

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