Practice report
NASCAR Cup Sonoma
Clint Bowyer leads first practice at Sonoma as Ford sweeps top three
Clint Bowyer calls Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway his “favorite track” and on Friday he left little doubt as to why.
Jim Utter
Edited: Jun 22, 2018, 8:15 PM
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Bowyer, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series’ most recent race winner, posted an average lap speed of 93.590 mph very early in Friday’s first practice session and it stood the remainder of the one hour, 15-minute session.
“It is the short track of road racing,” Bowyer said of Sonoma. “And who am I to say that? I am not a road racer and haven’t really been on anything other than these two that we race on.
“It has always felt like a little bullring short track somewhere in the Midwest. It just happens to be that you go right and shift gears all at the same time.”
Ryan Blaney ended up second (93.546 mph) and Joey Logano third (93.172 mph) as Ford teams swept the top three positions.
Jamie McMurray was fourth and Daniel Suarez completed the top five. The rest of the Top 10 were Jimmie Johnson, Michael McDowell, Martin Truex Jr., A.J. Allmendinger and Ryan Newman.
Last year’s race winner, Kevin Harvick, ended up 12th. Brad Keselowski and Austin Dillon completed the most laps in the session (23 each).
About 20 minutes into session, Kasey Kahne spun off course in Turn 3 but was able to continue on without incident.
“I felt a slight gain in Turn 6,” Kahne said over his radio after his spin. “Then that was it. I couldn't get it to cut in Turn 7.”
Erik Jones also went off course about 30 minutes into the session but with no apparent damage to his No. 20 Toyota.
Caution was displayed on the course about 49 minutes into the session for debris on the track. It appeared a brake hose broke off the car of Cody Ware.
Three drivers – Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson and Kahne – were forced to sit out the final 15 minutes of practice for failing pre-race inspection twice at Michigan.
David Ragan was forced to sit out the final 30 minutes of the session after his team failed pre-race inspection three times at Michigan.
Cla#DriverManufacturerLapsTimeGapIntervalMph 1 14 
Clint Bowyer Ford 14 1'16.547 93.590 2 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 15 1'16.583 0.036 0.036 93.546 3 22 Joey Logano Ford 18 1'16.890 0.343 0.307 93.172 4 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 15 1'16.992 0.445 0.102 93.049 5 19 
Daniel Suarez Toyota 14 1'17.243 0.696 0.251 92.746 6 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 13 1'17.314 0.767 0.071 92.661 7 34 Michael McDowell Ford 14 1'17.323 0.776 0.009 92.650 8 78 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 14 1'17.353 0.806 0.030 92.614 9 47 A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 13 1'17.368 0.821 0.015 92.596 10 31 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 16 1'17.369 0.822 0.001 92.595 11 21 Paul Menard Ford 13 1'17.427 0.880 0.058 92.526 12 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 14 1'17.458 0.911 0.031 92.489 13 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 12 1'17.478 0.931 0.020 92.465 14 41 Kurt Busch Ford 17 1'17.512 0.965 0.034 92.424 15 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 11 1'17.523 0.976 0.011 92.411 16 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 11 1'17.588 1.041 0.065 92.334 17 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 16 1'17.608 1.061 0.020 92.310 18 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 12 1'17.744 1.197 0.136 92.149 19 10 Aric Almirola Ford 19 1'17.784 1.237 0.040 92.101 20 38 David Ragan Ford 14 1'17.816 1.269 0.032 92.063 21 88 Alex Bowman Chevrolet 18 1'17.892 1.345 0.076 91.974 22 24 William Byron Chevrolet 23 1'17.932 1.385 0.040 91.926 23 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 23 1'18.059 1.512 0.127 91.777 24 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 17 1'18.060 1.513 0.001 91.776 25 95 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 7 1'18.076 1.529 0.016 91.757 26 72 Cole Whitt Chevrolet 11 1'18.268 1.721 0.192 91.532 27 32 Matt DiBenedetto Ford 11 1'18.350 1.803 0.082 91.436 28 20 Erik Jones Toyota 12 1'18.390 1.843 0.040 91.389 29 96 Parker Kligerman Toyota 13 1'18.421 1.874 0.031 91.353 30 6 Trevor Bayne Ford 13 1'18.434 1.887 0.013 91.338 31 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 23 1'18.581 2.034 0.147 91.167 32 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 17 1'18.608 2.061 0.027 91.136 33 43 Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 21 1'18.795 2.248 0.187 90.919 34 15 Justin Marks Chevrolet 13 1'19.284 2.737 0.489 90.359 35 23 Gray Gaulding Toyota 10 1'19.482 2.935 0.198 90.134 36 51 Chris Cook Ford 7 1'19.851 3.304 0.369 89.717 37 52 Cody Ware Chevrolet 8 1'21.299 4.752 1.448 88.119 38 00 Tomy Drissi Chevrolet 19 1'22.569 6.022 1.270 86.764
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