Martin Truex Jr. fastest in Saturday's first Cup practice at Martinsville

The reigning Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion earned his career-best finish at the track last fall when he finished as runner-up to winner Kyle Busch.

Truex posted an average lap speed of 95.752 mph early in the 55-minute session as teams spent the majority of their practice time in race set-up because of the likelihood Saturday’s second practice would be rained out.

Brad Keselowski ended up second-fastest (95.646 mph) followed by Kyle Busch (95.213 mph). Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch completed the top-five.

Rounding out the Top 10 were Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney.

Elliott said he has been buoyed but some recent strong runs at Martinsville.

“This has been one of my worst places and one of the places that I personally feel like I’ve struggled at a lot,” Elliott said. “So, to have a couple of good runs here the past two races has been nice, encouraging, had a car good enough to compete for a win here last time. 

“We were close this race last year, but definitely better in the fall. So, we learned some things.”

Logano has won a pole at Martinsville in each of the last four seasons.

Truex also had the fastest average lap speed (95.054 mph) of those drivers who ran at least 10 consecutive laps. He was followed by Kyle Busch, Larson, Hamlin and Elliott.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	44	19.776			95.752
2	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	44	19.798	0.022	0.022	95.646
3	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	41	19.888	0.112	0.090	95.213
4	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	41	19.891	0.115	0.003	95.199
5	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	63	19.913	0.137	0.022	95.094
6	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	63	19.915	0.139	0.002	95.084
7	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	62	19.919	0.143	0.004	95.065
8	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	69	19.932	0.156	0.013	95.003
9	22	Joey Logano	Ford	42	19.937	0.161	0.005	94.979
10	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	48	19.944	0.168	0.007	94.946
11	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	45	19.971	0.195	0.027	94.817
12	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	62	19.973	0.197	0.002	94.808
13	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	62	19.990	0.214	0.017	94.727
14	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	46	20.002	0.226	0.012	94.671
15	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	38	20.020	0.244	0.018	94.585
16	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	53	20.020	0.244	0.000	94.585
17	20	Erik Jones	Toyota	50	20.035	0.259	0.015	94.515
18	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	58	20.043	0.267	0.008	94.477
19	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	61	20.046	0.270	0.003	94.463
20	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	60	20.067	0.291	0.021	94.364
21	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	59	20.072	0.296	0.005	94.340
22	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	46	20.102	0.326	0.030	94.200
23	21	Paul Menard	Ford	53	20.107	0.331	0.005	94.176
24	88	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	56	20.110	0.334	0.003	94.162
25	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	51	20.111	0.335	0.001	94.157
26	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	38	20.113	0.337	0.002	94.148
27	38	David Ragan	Ford	45	20.114	0.338	0.001	94.143
28	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.	Chevrolet	54	20.117	0.341	0.003	94.129
29	95	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	40	20.142	0.366	0.025	94.013
30	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	20	20.171	0.395	0.029	93.877
31	23	Gray Gaulding	Toyota	25	20.223	0.447	0.052	93.636
32	72	Cole Whitt	Chevrolet	27	20.230	0.454	0.007	93.604
33	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	35	20.265	0.489	0.035	93.442
34	15	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	25	20.330	0.554	0.065	93.143
35	55	J.J. Yeley	Chevrolet	34	20.383	0.607	0.053	92.901
36	00	Landon Cassill	Chevrolet	16	20.670	0.894	0.287	91.611
37	96	D.J. Kennington	Toyota	26	20.699	0.923	0.029	91.483
38	51	Harrison Rhodes	Chevrolet	23	20.711	0.935	0.012	91.430