Practice report

NASCAR Cup Indianapolis

Menard leads final Indy Cup practice; Hamlin in fiery wreck

Paul Menard rocketed to the top of the leaderboard in final NASCAR Cup practice just before Denny Hamlin slammed into the wall.

Jim Utter

Edited: Sep 8, 2019, 9:35 AM

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Paul Menard, Wood Brothers Racing, Ford Mustang Menards / Dutch Boy

Just as the final 50-minute practice session came to a close at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Saturday afternoon, Menard posted an average lap speed of 185.079 mph to jump to the top of the speed chart.

Moments later, Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota hit the wall in Turn 4 on his cool-down lap and flames immediately began pouring out the back of his car.

It soon came to a rest on the frontstretch, engulfed in fire and smoke and Hamlin quickly exited the car. He was not hurt.

“It was big for sure. It was the last corner and I think the red flag had been out for a minute or so." said Hamlin. "We had just got into turn one when the red went out and we were going to finish our lap. It just blew a right-front. We hadn’t seen any wear issues so we might have run something over or whatever. Definitely got my attention.”

Hamlin’s team will have to go to a backup car, which means he will have to start Sunday’s Brickyard 400 from the rear of the field.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. ended up second-fastest (184.151 mph) and Erik Jones – who won last weekend’s race at Darlington, S.C. – was third (183.550 mph). Chris Buescher and Matt DiBenedetto completed the top-five.

Rounding out the top-10 speeds were Daniel Hemric, Kyle Busch, Ryan Preece, Kurt Busch and Joey Logano.

Kurt Busch ended up with the fastest average lap speed among those drivers who completed at least 10 consecutive laps (181.327 mph). Brad Keselowski and William Byron were second and third, respectively, in that category.

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Chip Ganassi Racing teammates top first Cup practice at Indy

Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Mph 1 21 United States Paul Menard Ford 16 48.628 185.079 2 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 15 48.873 0.245 0.245 184.151 3 20 Erik Jones Toyota 22 49.033 0.405 0.160 183.550 4 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 14 49.077 0.449 0.044 183.385 5 95 Matt DiBenedetto Toyota 18 49.167 0.539 0.090 183.050 6 8 United States Daniel Hemric Chevrolet 21 49.277 0.649 0.110 182.641 7 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 29 49.294 0.666 0.017 182.578 8 47 Ryan Preece Chevrolet 15 49.309 0.681 0.015 182.522 9 1 Kurt Busch Chevrolet 30 49.346 0.718 0.037 182.386 10 22 Joey Logano Ford 34 49.354 0.726 0.008 182.356 11 38 United States David Ragan Ford 17 49.365 0.737 0.011 182.315 12 24 William Byron Chevrolet 33 49.366 0.738 0.001 182.312 13 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 30 49.449 0.821 0.083 182.006 14 96 Parker Kligerman Toyota 17 49.468 0.840 0.019 181.936 15 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 23 49.570 0.942 0.102 181.561 16 43 United States Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 30 49.590 0.962 0.020 181.488 17 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 35 49.595 0.967 0.005 181.470 18 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 22 49.609 0.981 0.014 181.419 19 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 25 49.611 0.983 0.002 181.411 20 88 Alex Bowman Chevrolet 28 49.641 1.013 0.030 181.302 21 4 United States Kevin Harvick Ford 25 49.646 1.018 0.005 181.283 22 6 Ryan Newman Ford 15 49.660 1.032 0.014 181.232 23 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 22 49.667 1.039 0.007 181.207 24 19 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 19 49.684 1.056 0.017 181.145 25 10 Aric Almirola Ford 32 49.715 1.087 0.031 181.032 26 9 United States Chase Elliott Chevrolet 31 49.750 1.122 0.035 180.905 27 41 Mexico Daniel Suarez Ford 32 49.783 1.155 0.033 180.785 28 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 19 49.940 1.312 0.157 180.216 29 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 21 50.081 1.453 0.141 179.709 30 34 Michael McDowell Ford 25 50.188 1.560 0.107 179.326 31 32 United States Corey Lajoie Ford 9 50.20 1.572 0.012 179.283 32 36 Matt Tifft Ford 13 50.313 1.685 0.113 178.880 33 51 B.J. McLeod Ford 6 50.732 2.104 0.419 177.403 34 15 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 14 51.364 2.736 0.632 175.220 35 54 J.J. Yeley Chevrolet 2 51.746 3.118 0.382 173.926 36 52 United States Garrett Smithley Ford 5 51.826 3.198 0.080 173.658 37 27 Ryan Sieg Chevrolet 13 52.118 3.490 0.292 172.685 38 53 Josh Bilicki Ford 5 52.207 3.579 0.089 172.391

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