Practice report

NASCAR Cup Texas II

Kurt Busch fastest in Saturday's first Cup practice at Texas

Kurt Busch, who set the Texas Motor Speedway qualifying record on Friday, followed that up with the fastest average lap speed in Saturday’s first practice session.

Jim Utter

Edited: Nov 4, 2017, 8:31 PM

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Kurt Busch, Stewart-Haas Racing Ford

Busch’s average lap speed at 191.768 mph led the way over a pair of Toyotas – Denny Hamlin and Erik Jones – who have dominated much of the competition this season on 1.5-mile speedways.

Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott – who missed qualifying because his No. 24 Chevrolet failed to clear pre-qualifying inspection Friday – completed the top-five. Elliott ran the most laps (43) during the 55-minute session.

Rounding out the top 10 were Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Blaney, Daniel Suarez and Kasey Kahne.

Daniel Hemric continue to fill in Richard Childress Racing’s No. 27 Chevrolet for Paul Menard, who remained back in North Carolina after his wife gave birth to the couple’s second child on Wednesday.

Menard was expected in Texas for Saturday’s final practice and Sunday’s AAA 500. Hemric ended up posting the 29th-fastest speed.

Both Kyle Busch and Hamlin were forced to sit out the first 30 minutes of this practice session due to inspection violations. Both drivers also will miss the first 30 minutes of Saturday’s final practice session at Texas.

During the race, NASCAR released Cup team’s race sets of tires so they could put a “heat cycle” on them, or scuff them before Sunday’s race.

Larson posted the fastest average lap speed (189.152 mph) of the 12 drivers who ran at least 10 consecutive laps in the practice session. He was followed by Jones, Kyle Busch, Hamlin and Matt Kenseth.

Cla#DriverManufacturerLapsTimeGapIntervalMph 1 41 united_states Kurt Busch Ford 29 28.159 191.768 2 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 20 28.256 0.097 0.097 191.110 3 77 Erik Jones Toyota 29 28.262 0.103 0.006 191.069 4 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 37 28.290 0.131 0.028 190.880 5 24 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 43 28.294 0.135 0.004 190.853 6 18 united_states Kyle Busch Toyota 24 28.313 0.154 0.019 190.725 7 78 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 21 28.354 0.195 0.041 190.449 8 21 Ryan Blaney Ford 20 28.358 0.199 0.004 190.422 9 19 mexico Daniel Suarez Toyota 29 28.365 0.206 0.007 190.375 10 5 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 41 28.416 0.257 0.051 190.034 11 20 united_states Matt Kenseth Toyota 41 28.417 0.258 0.001 190.027 12 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 31 28.423 0.264 0.006 189.987 13 22 Joey Logano Ford 23 28.436 0.277 0.013 189.900 14 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 27 28.442 0.283 0.006 189.860 15 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 36 28.494 0.335 0.052 189.514 16 48 united_states Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 25 28.532 0.373 0.038 189.261 17 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 30 28.536 0.377 0.004 189.235 18 47 A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 23 28.592 0.433 0.056 188.864 19 43 Aric Almirola Ford 19 28.608 0.449 0.016 188.758 20 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 26 28.641 0.482 0.033 188.541 21 6 united_states Trevor Bayne Ford 17 28.665 0.506 0.024 188.383 22 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 31 28.698 0.539 0.033 188.166 23 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 27 28.701 0.542 0.003 188.147 24 31 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 16 28.704 0.545 0.003 188.127 25 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 29 28.752 0.593 0.048 187.813 26 34 united_states Landon Cassill Ford 32 28.801 0.642 0.049 187.493 27 10 Danica Patrick Ford 25 28.824 0.665 0.023 187.344 28 95 Michael McDowell Chevrolet 21 28.837 0.678 0.013 187.259 29 27 Daniel Hemric Chevrolet 23 28.901 0.742 0.064 186.845 30 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 30 28.939 0.780 0.038 186.599 31 32 united_states Matt DiBenedetto Ford 22 29.066 0.907 0.127 185.784 32 38 David Ragan Ford 22 29.114 0.955 0.048 185.478 33 23 Corey Lajoie Toyota 16 29.302 1.143 0.188 184.288 34 72 Cole Whitt Chevrolet 20 29.379 1.220 0.077 183.805 35 83 Gray Gaulding Toyota 22 29.551 1.392 0.172 182.735 36 15 united_states Reed Sorenson Chevrolet 15 29.553 1.394 0.002 182.723 37 7 Joey Gase Chevrolet 22 29.837 1.678 0.284 180.983 38 51 Ray Black Jr. Chevrolet 19 30.027 1.868 0.190 179.838 39 33 Jeffrey Earnhardt Chevrolet 13 30.044 1.885 0.017 179.736 40 66 David Starr Chevrolet 14 30.114 1.955 0.070 179.319

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