Practice report

NASCAR Cup Kentucky

Fresh off first Cup win, Erik Jones tops final practice at Kentucky

Momentum helps and Erik Jones showed the benefits in Friday’s final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice.

Jim Utter

Edited: Jul 13, 2018, 7:11 PM

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Erik Jones, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota Camry Freightliner

Fresh off his first series victory last weekend, Jones rocketed to the top of the leaderboard in final practice at Kentucky Speedway, leading the way with an average lap speed of 187.748 mph.

“I think there’s still work we’ve got to do, but, you know, we’re coming into a stretch of really good tracks for us,” Jones said Friday. “We ran through Sonoma and Chicago, which Sonoma is definitely not a good track for me and had a good run. And Chicago’s an okay track for myself and we had a good run there.

“Then, obviously, getting that win at Daytona, so there’s a lot of momentum on our side for almost the last month now and we want to keep that rolling obviously, but I think there’s going to be a little bit of work to do to catch (the series leaders).

“Hopefully, we can use that to our advantage and figure out what it’s going to take to get up there.”

In his only previous Cup start at Kentucky, Jones started 14th in last year’s race and finished sixth.

Ryan Blaney ended up second-fastest (186.896 mph) and Kyle Busch was third (186.503 mph). Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was fourth – putting up his fast lap very late in the 50-minute session – and Austin Dillon completed the top-five.

Rounding out the Top 10 were Darrell Wallace Jr., Clint Bowyer, Daniel Suarez, Aric Almirola and Chase Elliott.

Also read:

Kyle Larson leads Blaney in first Cup practice at Kentucky

Cla#DriverManufacturerLapsTimeGapIntervalMph 1 20 united_states Erik Jones Toyota 5 28.762 187.748 2 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 24 28.829 0.067 0.067 187.311 3 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 22 28.954 0.192 0.125 186.503 4 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 11 29.035 0.273 0.081 185.982 5 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 14 29.077 0.315 0.042 185.714 6 43 united_states Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 8 29.133 0.371 0.056 185.357 7 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 25 29.140 0.378 0.007 185.312 8 19 mexico Daniel Suarez Toyota 21 29.161 0.399 0.021 185.179 9 10 Aric Almirola Ford 17 29.161 0.399 0.000 185.179 10 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 25 29.175 0.413 0.014 185.090 11 2 united_states Brad Keselowski Ford 29 29.198 0.436 0.023 184.944 12 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 24 29.206 0.444 0.008 184.894 13 41 Kurt Busch Ford 19 29.242 0.480 0.036 184.666 14 78 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 21 29.265 0.503 0.023 184.521 15 31 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 20 29.348 0.586 0.083 183.999 16 6 united_states Matt Kenseth Ford 17 29.473 0.711 0.125 183.219 17 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 22 29.501 0.739 0.028 183.045 18 47 A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 22 29.522 0.760 0.021 182.914 19 34 Michael McDowell Ford 11 29.533 0.771 0.011 182.846 20 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 40 29.555 0.793 0.022 182.710 21 13 united_states Ty Dillon Chevrolet 16 29.577 0.815 0.022 182.574 22 38 David Ragan Ford 14 29.625 0.863 0.048 182.278 23 22 Joey Logano Ford 40 29.707 0.945 0.082 181.775 24 21 Paul Menard Ford 25 29.726 0.964 0.019 181.659 25 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 48 29.733 0.971 0.007 181.616 26 1 united_states Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 35 29.767 1.005 0.034 181.409 27 24 William Byron Chevrolet 39 29.883 1.121 0.116 180.705 28 88 Alex Bowman Chevrolet 19 29.887 1.125 0.004 180.681 29 95 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 26 29.901 1.139 0.014 180.596 30 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 26 29.921 1.159 0.020 180.475 31 32 united_states Matt DiBenedetto Ford 12 30.491 1.729 0.570 177.101 32 15 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 23 30.586 1.824 0.095 176.551 33 23 J.J. Yeley Toyota 18 30.743 1.981 0.157 175.650 34 72 Corey Lajoie Chevrolet 16 30.813 2.051 0.070 175.251 35 00 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 29 30.829 2.067 0.016 175.160 36 51 united_states B.J. McLeod Chevrolet 15 30.951 2.189 0.122 174.469 37 07 Jesse Little Chevrolet 10 31.084 2.322 0.133 173.723 38 66 Timmy Hill Toyota 10 31.354 2.592 0.270 172.227 39 99 Garrett Smithley Chevrolet 23 31.392 2.630 0.038 172.018

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