Practice report

NASCAR Cup Sonoma

Truex leads eventful Cup practice at Sonoma

Martin Truex Jr. jumped to the top of the speed chart in the final five minutes of first Monster Energy Cup practice at Sonoma Speedway on Friday.

Lee Spencer

Edited: Jun 23, 2017, 9:26 PM

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Martin Truex Jr., Furniture Row Racing Toyota

Truex best speed in single-lap runs was 95.587mph after completing 21 laps.

Denny Hamlin was second followed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chris Buescher, AJ Allmendinger, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson and Joey Logano.

Austin Dillon’s 32 laps were the most led in the session.

Bowyer was the fastest car of 15 cars in the first five minutes of practice with a speed of 93.338mph (76.753-seconds). He was running the same chassis that Tony Stewart won the SaveMart 350 with last year with modifications to accommodate the Ford engines.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. bumped the No. 14 Haas Automation Ford with his lap of 93.514mph (76.609-seconds).

Eight minutes into the session, Billy Johnson spun in his Cup debut with Richard Petty Motorsports. Johnson brought the car to the garage.

Thirty-one cars had established times when NASCAR released drivers with 15-minute practice holds — Kurt Busch, Erik Jones and Ty Dillon. Earnhardt still led the field followed by Bowyer, Truex (92.259mph), AJ Allmendinger (92.844mph) and Larson.

Just before the 30-minute mark, Jones reported he had a left front tire down. He wasn’t sure whether the flat occurred when he locked up his tires. Earnhardt still led the field and the top-five speeds had not changed. Jimmie Johnson was sixth quick with a time of 77.064-seconds followed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (77.154-seconds), Trevor Bayne (77.190-seconds), Jamie McMurray (77.214-seconds) and Joey Logano (77.318-seconds).

Rookie Daniel Suarez, who had never been to Sonoma prior, completed 12 laps — the most of the 36 drivers.

The first caution of the practice came out 37 minutes into the session when Ty Dillon ran off course in Turn 2 and sprayed gravel on the course. NASCAR put the track back under green at the 42-minute mark.

After the first hour, Chris Buescher broke into the top-five with a lap of 76.954-seconds. He’d completed 21 circuits. Denny Hamlin vaulted over Larson with a lap of 77.037-seconds for sixth-quick. Larson, Johnson, Stenhouse and Bayne rounded out the top 10.

With 30-minutes remaining in practice, Earnhardt led the 115-minute session followed by Bowyer, Truex, Larson, Buescher, Allmendinger, Hamlin, Johnson, Stenhouse and Bayne. Buescher and Austin Dillon had completed 22 circuits — the most in the first 85 minutes.

Matt Kenseth stalled in Turn 10 with 29 minutes to go to trigger the second caution. Kenseth was 25th on the speed chart and had completed his 11th lap.

At one hour, 22 minutes into practice, Stenhouse bumped Earnhardt with a lap of 93.684mph, 76.470-seconds. With 20 minutes to go, Allmendinger moved up to third with a lap 93.422mph.

“Water temp, 225,” Dinger said. “It’s a little tight when it lands the nose, but it cuts when I need it to cut.”

Hamlin jumped up to P1 with a lap of 94.068mph with less than 15 minutes remaining in the session.

“Yeah, I’m happy with it,” Hamlin said.

Elliott broke into the top 10 with 12 minutes to go. He was 33rd prior to improving his lap to 93.320mph. Bowyer bounced back up to third. Kyle Busch moved up to seventh, followed by Logano, Kahne and Truex.

Elliott spun with eight minutes left in the session.

“I probably flat-spotted the tires,” he radioed to crew chief Alan Gustafson.

There was a different voice over the No. 2 Team Penske radio on Friday. Crew chief Paul Wolfe remained in North Carolina with his wife, Aleah, who just gave birth to their second child, Halle Lane. Brian Wilson will oversee Brad Keselowski’s efforts this weekend. Keselowski was 17th on the speed chart after the first session.

Cla#DriverManufacturerLapsTimeGapIntervalMph 1 78 united_states Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 20 75.740 94.587 2 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 20 76.158 0.418 0.418 94.068 3 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 18 76.470 0.730 0.312 93.684 4 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 22 76.534 0.794 0.064 93.605 5 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 24 76.609 0.869 0.075 93.514 6 37 united_states Chris Buescher Chevrolet 24 76.615 0.875 0.006 93.506 7 47 A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 19 76.684 0.944 0.069 93.422 8 24 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 15 76.768 1.028 0.084 93.320 9 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 29 76.804 1.064 0.036 93.276 10 22 Joey Logano Ford 26 76.845 1.105 0.041 93.227 11 5 united_states Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 31 76.878 1.138 0.033 93.187 12 6 Trevor Bayne Ford 23 76.893 1.153 0.015 93.168 13 10 Danica Patrick Ford 27 76.921 1.181 0.028 93.135 14 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 20 76.935 1.195 0.014 93.118 15 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 25 76.979 1.239 0.044 93.064 16 48 united_states Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 31 77.037 1.297 0.058 92.994 17 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 29 77.045 1.305 0.008 92.985 18 41 Kurt Busch Ford 28 77.066 1.326 0.021 92.959 19 21 Ryan Blaney Ford 25 77.194 1.454 0.128 92.805 20 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 26 77.214 1.474 0.020 92.781 21 27 united_states Paul Menard Chevrolet 28 77.412 1.672 0.198 92.544 22 43 Billy Johnson Ford 14 77.604 1.864 0.192 92.315 23 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 32 77.612 1.872 0.008 92.305 24 31 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 21 77.746 2.006 0.134 92.146 25 95 Michael McDowell Chevrolet 13 77.782 2.042 0.036 92.104 26 32 united_states Matt DiBenedetto Ford 19 77.836 2.096 0.054 92.040 27 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 25 77.883 2.143 0.047 91.984 28 20 Matt Kenseth Toyota 11 78.000 2.260 0.117 91.846 29 38 David Ragan Ford 15 78.059 2.319 0.059 91.777 30 19 mexico Daniel Suarez Toyota 30 78.067 2.327 0.008 91.767 31 23 israel Alon Day Toyota 16 78.113 2.373 0.046 91.713 32 34 united_states Landon Cassill Ford 29 78.134 2.394 0.021 91.689 33 72 Cole Whitt Chevrolet 15 78.137 2.397 0.003 91.685 34 77 Erik Jones Toyota 23 78.317 2.577 0.180 91.474 35 33 Boris Said Chevrolet 4 78.754 3.014 0.437 90.967 36 51 Josh Bilicki Chevrolet 25 81.031 5.291 2.277 88.411 37 15 united_states Kevin O'Connell Chevrolet 10 81.180 5.440 0.149 88.248 38 55 Tommy Regan Chevrolet 7 83.869 8.129 2.689 85.419

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