Kyle Busch leads final practice at Pocono

After winning his third pole at Pocono Raceway on Friday, Busch was fastest in final practice as well.

Martin Truex Jr., (174.071mph) was the first car out on the track, but Busch quickly established the fast lap of 175.421mph on his second lap which held up during the entire session.

“Lately, we’ve certainly been better,” Busch said of the 2.5-mile tricky triangle. “I’ve had some second-place finishes and third-place finishes, so I feel like I’ve figured it out better there lately.

“With the way our cars at JGR have been overall, I’m very optimistic that we could score a victory there this weekend or, if not, when we come back later in the summer with our M&M’S Red, White, and Blue Camry.”

Brad Keselowski was second followed by Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick, Chase Elliott, Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne and Joey Logano.

Initially, Larson was second with a speed of 175.210mph. While Larson was working his 10th laps, he spun sideway in Turn 2 and barely collected Kyle Busch just before the 10-minute mark. Busch was still leading the session with Larson second followed by Ryan Newman, Harvick, Logano, Kahne, Keselowski, Bowyer, Blaney and Paul Menard.

Denny Hamlin, who leads the tour with four wins at Pocono, had completed nine laps prior to the caution along with Busch. Thirty-five of 39 cars had established times. The track returned to green seven minutes later.

Twenty minutes in, Kurt Busch jumped up to third with a lap of 174.910mph in his initial run.

“It seems squishy soft on hard braking,” Busch said. “There’s a lot of roll in the front.”
Newman remained fourth followed Harvick. Harvick then bounced around Busch with a speed of 175.050mph. Moments later, Hamlin ran picked up speed and drilled the back of the No. 31 Chevy. Both cars continued on.

Kyle Busch remained atop the board midway through the session followed by Larson, Harvick, Chase Elliott (174.944mph), Kurt Busch, Newman, Kasey Kahne (174.710mph), Joey Logano (174.710mph), Keselowski and Matt Kenseth (174.605mph). Michael McDowell’s 19 laps were the most completed.

With 20-minutes remaining, many of the teams worked on pit-road speed — including

Keselowski climbed up to second (175.285mph) on sticker tires with just over 15-minutes remaining in the 55-minute session. Busch held onto P1 with Larson, Harvick and Elliott rounding out the top-five speeds.

NASCAR called a caution for debris at the start-finish line with 11 minutes to go in Happy Hour. Ten cars made a mad dash with less than 10-minutes to continue dialing in the cars. Most of the field followed suit. Four minutes later, Busch was sideways in Turn 3 while and nearly brushed the SAFER barrier as he completed his 24th lap.

Harvick’s 32 laps were the most completed in final practice.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	29	51.305			175.421
2	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	21	51.345	0.040	0.040	175.285
3	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	28	51.367	0.062	0.022	175.210
4	24	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	21	51.406	0.101	0.039	175.077
5	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	32	51.414	0.109	0.008	175.050
6	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	23	51.455	0.150	0.041	174.910
7	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	22	51.456	0.151	0.001	174.907
8	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	27	51.459	0.154	0.003	174.897
9	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	28	51.514	0.209	0.055	174.710
10	22	Joey Logano	Ford	20	51.514	0.209	0.000	174.710
11	20	Matt Kenseth	Toyota	23	51.545	0.240	0.031	174.605
12	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	21	51.550	0.245	0.005	174.588
13	77	Erik Jones	Toyota	20	51.552	0.247	0.002	174.581
14	21	Ryan Blaney	Ford	20	51.601	0.296	0.049	174.415
15	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	10	51.636	0.331	0.035	174.297
16	27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	20	51.693	0.388	0.057	174.105
17	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	27	51.694	0.389	0.001	174.101
18	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	26	51.721	0.416	0.027	174.011
19	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	24	51.753	0.448	0.032	173.903
20	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	16	51.894	0.589	0.141	173.430
21	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	12	51.906	0.601	0.012	173.390
22	10	Danica Patrick	Ford	27	51.939	0.634	0.033	173.280
23	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	20	51.964	0.659	0.025	173.197
24	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	18	52.004	0.699	0.040	173.064
25	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	19	52.021	0.716	0.017	173.007
26	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	17	52.034	0.729	0.013	172.964
27	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.	Ford	19	52.177	0.872	0.143	172.490
28	95	Michael McDowell	Chevrolet	26	52.179	0.874	0.002	172.483
29	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	21	52.289	0.984	0.110	172.120
30	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	12	52.625	1.320	0.336	171.021
31	34	Landon Cassill	Ford	23	52.871	1.566	0.246	170.226
32	38	David Ragan	Ford	19	53.023	1.718	0.152	169.738
33	83	Corey Lajoie	Toyota	9	53.124	1.819	0.101	169.415
34	23	Gray Gaulding	Toyota	15	53.274	1.969	0.150	168.938
35	72	Cole Whitt	Chevrolet	11	53.356	2.051	0.082	168.678
36	15	Reed Sorenson	Chevrolet	15	53.467	2.162	0.111	168.328
37	33	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Chevrolet	21	53.798	2.493	0.331	167.292
38	51	Cody Ware	Chevrolet	13	54.363	3.058	0.565	165.554
39	55	Derrike Cope	Chevrolet	11	55.050	3.745	0.687	163.488