Harvick tops final Cup practice at Phoenix

Harvick completed two 20-lap runs in Happy Hour with a top speed of 134.973mph. 

“Our car is fast enough,” said Harvick, who leads the tour with eight wins at Phoenix. “It really was just gonna come down to me making all the right moves with the line and decisions and things like that. It’s been a great day and hopefully we can continue that on Sunday.”

Kyle Busch was second in single-lap speeds followed by Kasey Kahne, Martin Truex Jr., Clint Bowyer, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney. 

Johnson led the Best 10 Consecutive Lap Average category with a speed of 133.549mph. Kyle Busch was second (133.548mph) followed by Hamlin, Truex, Jamie McMurray, Harvick, Kenseth, Kahne, Kyle Larson and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Kyle Busch established a quick lap of 134.333mph after his first five laps in final practice. Kahne (134.328mph) ran second followed by Truex (134.313mph), Bowyer (134.263mph), Kenseth, Hamlin, Keselowski, Blaney, Earnhardt and McMurray. 

Johnson landed fifth (134.208mph) on the speed chart following his first run, but Harvick bumped him to sixth after posting the fastest lap (134.973mph) in the first eight minutes.

After 10 minutes, Harvick led the session followed by Kyle Busch, Kahne, Truex, Bowyer, Johnson, Kenseth, Hamlin, Keselowski and Blaney.

“Everywhere was a better but I was a little tight overall to start the run,” Hamlin said. 

Earnhardt, Kyle Larson, Jamie McMurray, Austin Dillon, Kurt Busch, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Trevor Bayne, David Ragan, Landon Cassill and Aric Almirola rounded out the top 20. 

NASCAR released Joey Logano, Chase Elliott and Chris Buescher, who were penalized 15 minutes for failing race inspection twice last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. Ty Dillon, Corey LaJoie and Matt DiBenedetto were released from timeout after failing qualifying inspection twice at Phoenix on Friday.

Logano was 22nd after his first run. Elliott landed at 17th.

Erik Jones was the final car released from penalty holds. The No. 77 Furniture Row team was docked 30 minutes for failing inspection three times prior to qualifying on Friday. He was 26th after his first run (132.033mph). 

Stenhouse’s 44 laps were the most completed at that point.

With 10 minutes to go in Happy Hour, the top 13 remained the same. Logano moved up to 14th followed by Austin Dillon, Kurt Busch, Elliott, Stenhouse, Bayne and Ragan.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	40	26.672			134.973
2	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	68	26.799	0.127	0.127	134.333
3	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	36	26.800	0.128	0.001	134.328
4	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	51	26.803	0.131	0.003	134.313
5	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	52	26.813	0.141	0.010	134.263
6	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	48	26.824	0.152	0.011	134.208
7	20	Matt Kenseth	Toyota	53	26.840	0.168	0.016	134.128
8	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	52	26.847	0.175	0.007	134.093
9	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	44	26.890	0.218	0.043	133.879
10	21	Ryan Blaney	Ford	40	26.903	0.231	0.013	133.814
11	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	47	26.904	0.232	0.001	133.809
12	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	49	26.921	0.249	0.017	133.725
13	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	63	26.931	0.259	0.010	133.675
14	22	Joey Logano	Ford	52	26.936	0.264	0.005	133.650
15	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	51	26.957	0.285	0.021	133.546
16	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	24	26.959	0.287	0.002	133.536
17	24	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	37	27.000	0.328	0.041	133.333
18	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	57	27.030	0.358	0.030	133.185
19	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	46	27.161	0.489	0.131	132.543
20	38	David Ragan	Ford	38	27.167	0.495	0.006	132.514
21	34	Landon Cassill	Ford	45	27.186	0.514	0.019	132.421
22	43	Aric Almirola	Ford	46	27.209	0.537	0.023	132.309
23	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	43	27.219	0.547	0.010	132.261
24	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	55	27.220	0.548	0.001	132.256
25	10	Danica Patrick	Ford	47	27.222	0.550	0.002	132.246
26	77	Erik Jones	Toyota	19	27.266	0.594	0.044	132.033
27	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	46	27.294	0.622	0.028	131.897
28	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	27	27.305	0.633	0.011	131.844
29	27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	48	27.307	0.635	0.002	131.834
30	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	38	27.447	0.775	0.140	131.162
31	95	Michael McDowell	Chevrolet	26	27.450	0.778	0.003	131.148
32	23	Corey Lajoie	Toyota	20	27.542	0.870	0.092	130.709
33	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	19	27.594	0.922	0.052	130.463
34	33	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Chevrolet	24	27.688	1.016	0.094	130.020
35	72	Cole Whitt	Chevrolet	25	27.715	1.043	0.027	129.894
36	15	D.J. Kennington	Chevrolet	34	27.786	1.114	0.071	129.562
37	00	Derrike Cope	Chevrolet	22	28.228	1.556	0.442	127.533
38	51	Kyle Weatherman	Chevrolet	30	28.433	1.761	0.205	126.613