Kurt Busch tops final Cup practice at Kansas

Busch, who led the most laps last weekend at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway before running out of gas in overtime, posted the fastest average lap speed (186.226 mph) early in the final 50-minute practice session.

Erik Jones was second (186.104 mph) and Aric Almirola was third (185.842 mph). Kyle Busch and Paul Menard completed the top-five.

“Kansas has been a good track as of late for us at Stewart-Haas and, for me, I think the outside groove is really going to come into play more so than it has in years past,” said Busch, who will start 11th on Sunday. “But … it’s going to be cold.

“When you have cool temperatures, that brings up the speed and it really pushes us back to the bottom groove because the bottom groove will have the speed in it. We’ll see how it plays out.”

Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 is shaping up to be another strong day for Ford.

Almirola was fastest in Saturday’s first practice, Ryan Blaney was fastest in Friday’s practice and fellow Ford driver Joey Logano won the pole during Friday’s qualifying.

Rounding out the Top speeds in final practice were Blaney, Brad Keselowski, Clint Bowyer, Alex Bowman and Martin Truex Jr.

In all, Ford drivers claimed six of the top-10 final practice speeds.

Kyle Busch had the fastest average speed (183.094 mph) among those drivers who ran at least 10 consecutive laps. Filling out the top-five in that category were Almirola, Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick and Jones.

Chase Elliott and Matt DiBenedetto had to sit out the final 15 minutes of the session as their respective cars twice failed pre-qualifying inspection on Friday.

Cla	#	Driver	4506	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	44	28.997			186.226
2	20	Erik Jones	Toyota	36	29.016	0.019	0.019	186.104
3	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	49	29.057	0.060	0.041	185.842
4	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	55	29.115	0.118	0.058	185.471
5	21	Paul Menard	Ford	50	29.119	0.122	0.004	185.446
6	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	42	29.135	0.138	0.016	185.344
7	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	51	29.175	0.178	0.040	185.090
8	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	44	29.193	0.196	0.018	184.976
9	88	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	55	29.202	0.205	0.009	184.919
10	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	50	29.206	0.209	0.004	184.894
11	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	33	29.209	0.212	0.003	184.875
12	22	Joey Logano	Ford	67	29.216	0.219	0.007	184.830
13	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	32	29.249	0.252	0.033	184.622
14	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	48	29.267	0.270	0.018	184.508
15	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	48	29.280	0.283	0.013	184.426
16	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	42	29.296	0.299	0.016	184.326
17	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	51	29.340	0.343	0.044	184.049
18	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	47	29.354	0.357	0.014	183.961
19	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	44	29.403	0.406	0.049	183.655
20	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	46	29.514	0.517	0.111	182.964
21	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	47	29.580	0.583	0.066	182.556
22	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	45	29.640	0.643	0.060	182.186
23	95	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	38	29.649	0.652	0.009	182.131
24	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	32	29.724	0.727	0.075	181.671
25	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.	Chevrolet	44	29.754	0.757	0.030	181.488
26	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	32	29.770	0.773	0.016	181.391
27	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	16	29.783	0.786	0.013	181.311
28	38	David Ragan	Ford	37	29.865	0.868	0.082	180.814
29	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	37	29.900	0.903	0.035	180.602
30	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	23	30.016	1.019	0.116	179.904
31	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	42	30.036	1.039	0.020	179.784
32	15	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	25	30.160	1.163	0.124	179.045
33	72	Corey Lajoie	Chevrolet	12	30.333	1.336	0.173	178.024
34	00	Landon Cassill	Chevrolet	16	30.342	1.345	0.009	177.971
35	96	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Toyota	31	30.426	1.429	0.084	177.480
36	99	Kyle Weatherman	Chevrolet	6	30.590	1.593	0.164	176.528
37	23	J.J. Yeley	Toyota	24	30.674	1.677	0.084	176.045
38	51	B.J. McLeod	Chevrolet	3	31.200	2.203	0.526	173.077
39	7	Reed Sorenson	Chevrolet	10	31.311	2.314	0.111	172.463