Practice report

NASCAR Cup Sonoma

Kurt Busch fastest in final NASCAR Cup practice at Sonoma

Kurt Busch led Friday’s second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice session with the fastest lap of the day at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway.

Jim Utter

Edited: Jun 22, 2018, 11:23 PM

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Kurt Busch, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford Fusion Monster Energy / Haas Automation

Midway through the session Friday, Busch posted an average lap speed of 94.061 mph – the fastest lap anyone had turned all day.

“I love road racing and I think it’s fun. It’s important to have a positive mindset everywhere, but it’s not problem for me at the road courses,” Busch said. “I just like the rhythm. I like how you use one corner to help you in the next corner. You have to be thinking three corners ahead.

“Everything seems to have a larger consequence because track position is so important. So, as soon as you have a flat tire or a fender rub or you go off track, it’s very difficult to get back the track position you once had.”

Denny Hamlin ended up second fastest (94.012 mph) and Martin Truex Jr. was third (93.718 mph). Jamie McMurray was fourth and last year’s race winner, Kevin Harvick, completed the top-five.

Truex ended up with some minor front-end damage to his No. 78 Toyota after a run-in with Darrell Wallace Jr. on the track.

Rounding out the Top 10 were Chris Buescher, Brad Keselowski, Trevor Bayne, Aric Almirola and Michael McDowell.

Ryan Blaney (29) completed the most laps in session.

About 10 minutes into the session, both Kyle Larson and William Byron had smoke coming from their respective cars and NASCAR threw a caution to check for oil on the track. Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet appeared to have an axle failure.

Harvick had the fastest average lap speed of the drivers that completed at least 10 consecutive laps (91.468 mph). Kurt Busch was second and Clint Bowyer third in that category.

Cla#DriverManufacturerLapsTimeGapIntervalMph 1 41 united_states Kurt Busch Ford 25 1'16.163 94.061 2 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 22 1'16.203 0.040 0.040 94.012 3 78 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 16 1'16.442 0.279 0.239 93.718 4 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 25 1'16.580 0.417 0.138 93.549 5 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 28 1'16.669 0.506 0.089 93.441 6 37 united_states Chris Buescher Chevrolet 18 1'16.692 0.529 0.023 93.413 7 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 26 1'16.734 0.571 0.042 93.361 8 6 Trevor Bayne Ford 14 1'16.802 0.639 0.068 93.279 9 10 Aric Almirola Ford 24 1'16.868 0.705 0.066 93.199 10 34 Michael McDowell Ford 16 1'16.904 0.741 0.036 93.155 11 38 united_states David Ragan Ford 20 1'16.944 0.781 0.040 93.107 12 47 A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 21 1'16.970 0.807 0.026 93.075 13 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 21 1'17.098 0.935 0.128 92.921 14 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 22 1'17.116 0.953 0.018 92.899 15 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 24 1'17.223 1.060 0.107 92.770 16 32 united_states Matt DiBenedetto Ford 18 1'17.394 1.231 0.171 92.565 17 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 30 1'17.424 1.261 0.030 92.529 18 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 26 1'17.429 1.266 0.005 92.523 19 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 21 1'17.435 1.272 0.006 92.516 20 95 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 19 1'17.457 1.294 0.022 92.490 21 88 united_states Alex Bowman Chevrolet 23 1'17.534 1.371 0.077 92.398 22 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 24 1'17.535 1.372 0.001 92.397 23 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 20 1'17.571 1.408 0.036 92.354 24 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 29 1'17.596 1.433 0.025 92.324 25 24 William Byron Chevrolet 15 1'17.634 1.471 0.038 92.279 26 72 united_states Cole Whitt Chevrolet 13 1'17.772 1.609 0.138 92.115 27 31 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 22 1'17.790 1.627 0.018 92.094 28 20 Erik Jones Toyota 23 1'17.794 1.631 0.004 92.089 29 23 Gray Gaulding Toyota 5 1'17.808 1.645 0.014 92.073 30 22 Joey Logano Ford 20 1'17.881 1.718 0.073 91.986 31 15 united_states Justin Marks Chevrolet 15 1'17.953 1.790 0.072 91.902 32 21 Paul Menard Ford 20 1'17.990 1.827 0.037 91.858 33 19 mexico Daniel Suarez Toyota 26 1'18.162 1.999 0.172 91.656 34 43 Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 22 1'18.175 2.012 0.013 91.641 35 96 Parker Kligerman Toyota 14 1'18.222 2.059 0.047 91.585 36 51 united_states Chris Cook Ford 7 1'18.698 2.535 0.476 91.032 37 52 Cody Ware Chevrolet 5 1'19.849 3.686 1.151 89.719 38 00 Tomy Drissi Chevrolet 13 1'19.949 3.786 0.100 89.607

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