Kurt Busch tops Friday's first Cup practice at Kentucky

In the final three minutes of the 50-minute session, Busch posted an average lap speed of 183.742 mph as several teams elected to make mock qualifying runs.

Aric Almirola ended up second (183.542 mph) and his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Daniel Suarez was third (183.101 mph). Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch – who has won races in four different series at the track – completed the top-five.

In eight career Cup starts at Kentucky, Kurt Busch’s best finish was fourth in 2016. In his most recent outing last year, he ended up sixth after leading the second-most laps (45) in the race. 

Rounding out the top-10 in practice were Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, Erik Jones and Clint Bowyer.

All four SHR cars ended up in the top-10 as well as both Chip Ganassi Racing teams.

Cla	#	Driver		Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	1	Kurt Busch		Chevrolet	29	29.389			183.742
2	10	Aric Almirola		Ford	26	29.421	0.032	0.032	183.542
3	41	Daniel Suarez		Ford	27	29.492	0.103	0.071	183.101
4	48	Jimmie Johnson		Chevrolet	27	29.553	0.164	0.061	182.723
5	18	Kyle Busch		Toyota	33	29.581	0.192	0.028	182.550
6	42	Kyle Larson		Chevrolet	41	29.646	0.257	0.065	182.149
7	2	Brad Keselowski		Ford	41	29.657	0.268	0.011	182.082
8	4	Kevin Harvick		Ford	40	29.671	0.282	0.014	181.996
9	20	Erik Jones		Toyota	27	29.681	0.292	0.010	181.935
10	14	Clint Bowyer		Ford	40	29.703	0.314	0.022	181.800
11	12	Ryan Blaney		Ford	25	29.718	0.329	0.015	181.708
12	22	Joey Logano		Ford	34	29.728	0.339	0.010	181.647
13	11	Denny Hamlin		Toyota	39	29.738	0.349	0.010	181.586
14	9	Chase Elliott		Chevrolet	51	29.807	0.418	0.069	181.165
15	24	William Byron		Chevrolet	30	29.860	0.471	0.053	180.844
16	21	Paul Menard		Ford	34	29.861	0.472	0.001	180.838
17	88	Alex Bowman		Chevrolet	38	29.864	0.475	0.003	180.820
18	19	Martin Truex Jr.		Toyota	25	29.867	0.478	0.003	180.802
19	8	Daniel Hemric		Chevrolet	32	29.884	0.495	0.017	180.699
20	95	Matt DiBenedetto		Toyota	30	29.909	0.520	0.025	180.548
21	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		Ford	25	29.946	0.557	0.037	180.325
22	36	Matt Tifft		Ford	19	29.975	0.586	0.029	180.150
23	3	Austin Dillon		Chevrolet	26	29.989	0.600	0.014	180.066
24	37	Chris Buescher		Chevrolet	31	30.006	0.617	0.017	179.964
25	38	David Ragan		Ford	35	30.112	0.723	0.106	179.330
26	6	Ryan Newman		Ford	21	30.116	0.727	0.004	179.307
27	34	Michael McDowell		Ford	33	30.167	0.778	0.051	179.004
28	32	Corey Lajoie		Ford	21	30.194	0.805	0.027	178.843
29	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.		Chevrolet	30	30.243	0.854	0.049	178.554
30	13	Ty Dillon		Chevrolet	26	30.303	0.914	0.060	178.200
31	47	Ryan Preece		Chevrolet	31	30.322	0.933	0.019	178.089
32	15	Ross Chastain		Chevrolet	31	30.475	1.086	0.153	177.194
33	51	Bayley Currey		Ford	18	30.773	1.384	0.298	175.479
34	52	B.J. McLeod		Chevrolet	9	30.898	1.509	0.125	174.769
35	77	Quin Houff		Chevrolet	21	31.035	1.646	0.137	173.997
36	00	Landon Cassill		Chevrolet	32	31.143	1.754	0.108	173.394