Practice report
NASCAR Cup Charlotte
Erik Jones leads Cup practice at Charlotte; Kyle Larson hits wall
Erik Jones led the way in Friday’s lone Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice session at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Jim Utter
Edited: May 25, 2017, 8:26 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Jones, who ran very well in last weekend’s Monster Energy Open during All-Star Race activities, posted an average lap speed of 192.713 mph to lead the way in the one-hour, 25-minute session.
Jimmie Johnson was second-fastest (192.472 mph), Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin tied for fourth (192.465 mph) and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top-five (192.150 mph).
While attempting a mock qualifying run late in the session, Larson hit the Turn 2 wall on exit and did what his team described as “quite a lot of damage” to his No. 42 Chevrolet.
It was Larson’s ninth lap of the session and he immediately took his car to the garage. At the conclusion of practice, his Chip Ganassi team was undecided whether it would move to a back-up car before Thursday night’s qualifying session.
“I haven’t run the top (lane) yet. I went into (Turn) 1 and got really tight and never got wide-open and hammered the wall pretty good. It caught me off-guard, really,” Larson said.
“I’m disappointed.”
Kurt Busch and Clint Bowyer also tagged the Turn 2 wall during the session, but their incidents did not appear very serious.
“Things are good. We had a Goodyear tire test a couple weeks ago and we tried lots of different stuff,” Busch said. “We’re really doing our homework on qualifying trim right now.
“When you put VHT on the track, it’s kind of like drag-racing. It’s very inconsistent when you’re driving through it and when you’re not driving through it.”
To help encourage drivers to utilize the upper racing groove in the corners, track officials have been applying a VHT resin to the upper groove and running a tire machine over the area.
The session was halted briefly twice in the first 30 minutes to clear debris from the track.
In his first run on the track, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. nearly hit the wall but made a great save that prevented his No. 17 Ford from receiving any damage.
Cla#DriverManufacturerLapsTimeGapIntervalMph 1 77 
Erik Jones Toyota 9 28.021 192.713 2 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 8 28.056 0.035 0.035 192.472 3 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 8 28.057 0.036 0.001 192.465 4 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 9 28.057 0.036 0.000 192.465 5 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 5 28.103 0.082 0.046 192.150 6 20 Matt Kenseth Toyota 9 28.141 0.120 0.038 191.891 7 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 9 28.141 0.120 0.000 191.891 8 21 Ryan Blaney Ford 9 28.142 0.121 0.001 191.884 9 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 8 28.159 0.138 0.017 191.768 10 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 9 28.189 0.168 0.030 191.564
CLICK HERE for complete practice results
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Roundtable: Is it time to move the NASCAR All-Star Race?
Next article NASCAR to host college athletes in diversity combine in Concord, N.C.
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jim Utter
Erik Jones agrees to multi-year contract extension with Legacy Motor Club
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup Aug 13, 2024
Erik Jones agrees to multi-year contract extension with Legacy Motor Club
Goodyear's option tires at Richmond "were like Mario Kart with a star"
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond II
Aug 12, 2024
Goodyear's option tires at Richmond "were like Mario Kart with a star"
NASCAR: Austin Dillon move was "really close to crossing the line"
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond II
Aug 12, 2024
NASCAR: Austin Dillon move was "really close to crossing the line"
More from
Kurt Busch
Kurt Busch buys NASCAR truck from his rookie season for $110,000 at auction
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup 1 mo
Kurt Busch buys NASCAR truck from his rookie season for $110,000 at auction
Kurt Busch talks grief with CNN's Anderson Cooper and the loss of brother Kyle
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup 2 mo
Kurt Busch talks grief with CNN's Anderson Cooper and the loss of brother Kyle
Kurt Busch opens up on brother's passing in new TODAY Show interview
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup 2 mo
Kurt Busch opens up on brother's passing in new TODAY Show interview
Latest news
TV ratings released for NASCAR Cup season finale
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
4 h
TV ratings released for NASCAR Cup season finale
Chase Elliott's car chief leaves Hendrick for NASCAR Truck crew chief role
NASCAR Truck
NSTR NASCAR Truck
Homestead
5 h
Chase Elliott's car chief leaves Hendrick for NASCAR Truck crew chief role
“I was getting beat up” – How Daniel Ricciardo burned out on ‘humiliating’ F1 return
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 9 h
“I was getting beat up” – How Daniel Ricciardo burned out on ‘humiliating’ F1 return
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe