Practice report

Michael McDowell surprises at the top of NASCAR Cup practice

Michael McDowell, fresh off his season’s-best finish at Atlanta last weekend, led the way in Saturday’s NASCAR Cup practice at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

With finishes of seventh at the Chicago Street Race and fourth at Atlanta, McDowell is now 15th in the series standings.

He followed that up by posting the fastest average single lap speed (126.416 mph) to lead all competitors in Saturday’s practice.

“For a guy that normally sucks at New Hampshire, that was a good practice,” McDowell said. “We got to go out there and do it in qualifying now.”

Martin Truex Jr. ended up second-fastest (126.408 mph) and Ross Chastain was third (126.077 mph). All three came from Group A.

Among those drivers who ran at least 10 consecutive laps, Truex had the best average speed (125.495 mph). He was followed by McDowell and Christopher Bell, respectively, in that category.

Group A

McDowell, who ran the most laps in the first 20-minute sessions (26), also ended up with the fastest average lap speed (126.416 mph).

Truex was second-fastest (124.408 mph) and Chastain was third (126.077 mph).

23XI Racing teammates Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace rounded out the top five.

About 12 minutes into the session, Kyle Busch made some hard contact with the wall, doing some right-side damage to his No. 8 Chevrolet. He immediately hit pit road for repairs.

Over his team radio, Busch had claimed the car was “wrecking loose” prior to the impact.

Group B

Bell, who won this race a year ago, ended up fastest in the second 20-minute session (125.256 mph) but no one could match the speeds from Group A.

Daniel Suarez ended up second-fastest (125.248 mph) and Joey Logano was third (124.997 mph).

Kyle Larson was fourth and Ryan Preece, a former NASCAR Modified champion with a lot of experience at New Hampshire, rounded out the top five.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	26	30.129			126.416
2	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	19	30.131	0.002	0.002	126.408
3	1	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	21	30.210	0.081	0.079	126.077
4	45	Tyler Reddick	Toyota	15	30.251	0.122	0.041	125.907
5	23	Bubba Wallace	Toyota	16	30.273	0.144	0.022	125.815
6	31	Justin Haley	Chevrolet	16	30.306	0.177	0.033	125.678
7	8	Kyle Busch	Chevrolet	6	30.325	0.196	0.019	125.599
8	6	Brad Keselowski	Ford	11	30.328	0.199	0.003	125.587
9	17	Chris Buescher	Ford	24	30.395	0.266	0.067	125.310
10	20	Christopher Bell	Toyota	27	30.408	0.279	0.013	125.257
11	99	Daniel Suarez	Chevrolet	24	30.410	0.281	0.002	125.248
12	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	22	30.447	0.318	0.037	125.096
13	22	Joey Logano	Ford	20	30.476	0.347	0.029	124.977
14	5	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	22	30.503	0.374	0.027	124.866
15	41	Ryan Preece	Ford	26	30.509	0.380	0.006	124.842
16	43	Erik Jones	Chevrolet	13	30.529	0.400	0.020	124.760
17	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	24	30.549	0.420	0.020	124.678
18	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	21	30.577	0.448	0.028	124.564
19	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	24	30.594	0.465	0.017	124.495
20	54	Ty Gibbs	Toyota	24	30.603	0.474	0.009	124.458
21	7	Corey Lajoie	Chevrolet	10	30.627	0.498	0.024	124.361
22	38	Todd Gilliland	Ford	21	30.632	0.503	0.005	124.341
23	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	25	30.648	0.519	0.016	124.276
24	2	Austin Cindric	Ford	21	30.660	0.531	0.012	124.227
25	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	21	30.672	0.543	0.012	124.178
26	14	Chase Briscoe	Ford	21	30.732	0.603	0.060	123.936
27	51	Cole Custer	Ford	20	30.754	0.625	0.022	123.847
28	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	17	30.774	0.645	0.020	123.767
29	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Chevrolet	17	30.785	0.656	0.011	123.723
30	42	Noah Gragson	Chevrolet	23	30.810	0.681	0.025	123.622
31	48	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	21	30.827	0.698	0.017	123.554
32	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	23	30.861	0.732	0.034	123.418
33	21	Harrison Burton	Ford	15	30.970	0.841	0.109	122.984
34	15	Ryan Newman	Ford	24	31.028	0.899	0.058	122.754
35	78	B.J. McLeod	Chevrolet	11	31.037	0.908	0.009	122.718
36	77	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	14	31.141	1.012	0.104	122.308