Practice report

NASCAR Cup Michigan II

Austin Dillon fastest in Friday's Cup practice at Michigan

With three poles in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series already this season, Austin Dillon looks primed to win a fourth.

Jim Utter

Published: Aug 9, 2019, 5:36 PM

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Austin Dillon, Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet Camaro AAA

Late in the 50-minute session Friday, Dillon rocketed to the top of the speed chart, leading practice at Michigan International Speedway with an average lap speed of 189.969 mph.

“Those first couple runs weren’t very comfortable. We’re still a little free,” Dillon said. “I’m really proud of ECR power and we have a rocket ship today.”

Dillon has won poles this season at Fontana, Calif., Talladega, Ala., and Chicagoland. He’s still looking for his first win of the 2019 season.

In 14 career starts at Michigan, Dillon’s best performance is a pair of fourth-place finishes in 2018 and 2015.

Brad Keselowski ended up second (189.929 mph) and Jimmie Johnson was third (189.603 mph). Alex Bowman and Daniel Hemric completed the top-five.

Rounding the top-10 speeds were Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Ryan Blaney, the June Michigan race winner Joey Logano and Paul Menard.

Bowyer had to sit out the final 15 minutes of the practice session as his No. 14 Ford was late out of the garage last weekend for qualifying.

Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Mph 1 3 United States Austin Dillon Chevrolet 6 37.901 189.969 2 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 8 37.909 0.008 0.008 189.929 3 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 7 37.974 0.073 0.065 189.603 4 88 Alex Bowman Chevrolet 5 38.104 0.203 0.130 188.957 5 8 Daniel Hemric Chevrolet 5 38.104 0.203 0.000 188.957 6 4 United States Kevin Harvick Ford 5 38.106 0.205 0.002 188.947 7 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 5 38.149 0.248 0.043 188.734 8 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 4 38.178 0.277 0.029 188.590 9 22 Joey Logano Ford 4 38.192 0.291 0.014 188.521 10 21 Paul Menard Ford 7 38.228 0.327 0.036 188.344 11 9 United States Chase Elliott Chevrolet 7 38.270 0.369 0.042 188.137 12 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 7 38.289 0.388 0.019 188.044 13 24 William Byron Chevrolet 7 38.296 0.395 0.007 188.009 14 1 Kurt Busch Chevrolet 5 38.325 0.424 0.029 187.867 15 19 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 5 38.357 0.456 0.032 187.710 16 11 United States Denny Hamlin Toyota 5 38.358 0.457 0.001 187.705 17 20 Erik Jones Toyota 7 38.382 0.481 0.024 187.588 18 41 Mexico Daniel Suarez Ford 4 38.388 0.487 0.006 187.559 19 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 5 38.455 0.554 0.067 187.232 20 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 7 38.485 0.584 0.030 187.086 21 10 United States Aric Almirola Ford 5 38.497 0.596 0.012 187.028 22 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 6 38.514 0.613 0.017 186.945 23 36 Matt Tifft Ford 7 38.559 0.658 0.045 186.727 24 6 Ryan Newman Ford 7 38.615 0.714 0.056 186.456 25 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 7 38.676 0.775 0.061 186.162 26 43 United States Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 7 38.842 0.941 0.166 185.366 27 95 Matt DiBenedetto Toyota 5 38.894 0.993 0.052 185.119 28 47 Ryan Preece Chevrolet 7 38.894 0.993 0.000 185.119 29 34 Michael McDowell Ford 5 38.965 1.064 0.071 184.781 30 38 David Ragan Ford 4 39.100 1.199 0.135 184.143 31 00 United States Landon Cassill Chevrolet 5 39.262 1.361 0.162 183.383 32 15 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 1 39.608 1.707 0.346 181.781 33 32 Corey Lajoie Ford 3 39.609 1.708 0.001 181.777 34 51 Cody Ware Ford 3 39.995 2.094 0.386 180.023 35 52 Austin Theriault Ford 9 40.176 2.275 0.181 179.211 36 27 United States Quin Houff Chevrolet 1 40.327 2.426 0.151 178.540 37 77 Reed Sorenson Chevrolet 2 40.706 2.805 0.379 176.878 38 53 Spencer Boyd Ford 13 42.791 4.890 2.085 168.260

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