Practice report
NASCAR Cup Talladega II
Keselowski leads opening Cup practice at Talladega
Brad Keselowski, who has won two of the last six races at Talladega Superspeedway, posted the fastest single-lap speed in first practice on Friday morning.
Lee Spencer
Edited: Oct 13, 2017, 7:07 PM
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Keselowski’s best time in the draft was 70.265-seconds after 27 laps.
Kurt Busch was second quick followed by Ryan Blaney, spring Talladega winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Aric Almirola, Danica Patrick, Joey Logano and Kasey Kahne.
Austin Dillon (P14) completed 32 circuits, the most during the 55-minute session.
Blaney led the Best 10 Consecutive Lap Average category with a speed of 196.829mph followed by Logano, Almirola, Keselowski, Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Erik Jones, Suarez, Kahne and Truex.
Twenty-two cars had completed at least one lap when Jimmie Johnson spun off of Turn 4 after cutting a left-rear tire on his first run. NASCAR called a caution just before eight minutes into the session.
“Popped a tire going into (turn) three and looking at some photos here a second ago, it looked like the tire was already soft down the back straightaway," Johnson said. "I guess I ran something over on the apron getting up to speed, and made, oh I don’t know, maybe a third of a lap and was spun out which is really bizarre.”
Practice returned to green eight minutes later with Denny Hamlin P1 (194.682mph). Brad Keselowski (197.859mph) shot to the top of the leader board moments later as a pack of 13 Fords gathered in the draft. Kurt Busch was second followed by Blaney, Stenhouse, Harvick, Bowyer, Almirola, Patrick, Logano, Landon Cassill, David Ragan, Matt DiBenedetto and Trevor Bayne. At the 30-minute mark, NASCAR released Martin Truex Jr., who had a 30-minute practice hold — plus will serve an additional 15minutes in Happy Hour. AJ Allmendinger, who also had a total of 45-minutes in the penalty box, was released shortly after.
Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Blaney, Stenhouse, Harvick, Bowyer, Almirola, Patrick and Logano remained in the top nine with Austin Dillon coming in at 10th with a lap of196.685mph.
The Toyotas comprised the next drafting pack with Hamlin (196.746mph) and Truex (196.057mph) posting the top speeds. Kasey Kahne jumped in the group and moved up to 10th (197.082mph). Ty Dillon (196.746mph) moved up to 11th.
With five minutes remaining, the second caution was called for debris on the race track. The top nine remained the same with Kahne tenth followed by Ty Dillon, Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch, Truex, Matt Kenseth, Erik Jones, Bayne and Daniel Suarez.
Cla#DriverManufacturerLapsTimeGapIntervalMph 1 2 
Brad Keselowski Ford 27 48.398 197.859 2 41 Kurt Busch Ford 24 48.411 0.013 0.013 197.806 3 21 Ryan Blaney Ford 19 48.413 0.015 0.002 197.798 4 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 24 48.422 0.024 0.009 197.761 5 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 22 48.438 0.040 0.016 197.696 6 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 22 48.442 0.044 0.004 197.680 7 43 Aric Almirola Ford 21 48.445 0.047 0.003 197.667 8 10 Danica Patrick Ford 21 48.450 0.052 0.005 197.647 9 22 Joey Logano Ford 29 48.460 0.062 0.010 197.606 10 5 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 29 48.589 0.191 0.129 197.082 11 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 30 48.615 0.217 0.026 196.976 12 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 27 48.672 0.274 0.057 196.746 13 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 28 48.678 0.280 0.006 196.721 14 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 32 48.687 0.289 0.009 196.685 15 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 23 48.785 0.387 0.098 196.290 16 78 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 17 48.843 0.445 0.058 196.057 17 20 Matt Kenseth Toyota 26 48.891 0.493 0.048 195.864 18 77 Erik Jones Toyota 30 48.892 0.494 0.001 195.860 19 6 Trevor Bayne Ford 27 48.893 0.495 0.001 195.856 20 19 
Daniel Suarez Toyota 24 48.967 0.569 0.074 195.560 21 34 Landon Cassill Ford 18 49.007 0.609 0.040 195.401 22 38 David Ragan Ford 22 49.076 0.678 0.069 195.126 23 32 Matt DiBenedetto Ford 12 49.077 0.679 0.001 195.122 24 95 Michael McDowell Chevrolet 24 49.141 0.743 0.064 194.868 25 27 Paul Menard Chevrolet 21 49.262 0.864 0.121 194.389 26 24 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 24 49.277 0.879 0.015 194.330 27 75 Brendan Gaughan Chevrolet 9 49.388 0.990 0.111 193.893 28 31 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 25 49.455 1.057 0.067 193.631 29 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 13 49.793 1.395 0.338 192.316 30 33 Jeffrey Earnhardt Chevrolet 12 50.404 2.006 0.611 189.985 31 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 18 50.572 2.174 0.168 189.354 32 47 A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 11 50.693 2.295 0.121 188.902 33 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 13 50.712 2.314 0.019 188.831 34 83 Gray Gaulding Toyota 17 50.881 2.483 0.169 188.204 35 23 Joey Gase Toyota 12 50.992 2.594 0.111 187.794 36 7 Justin Marks Chevrolet 12 51.561 3.163 0.569 185.722 37 55 
D.J. Kennington Toyota 3 52.143 3.745 0.582 183.649 38 72 Cole Whitt Chevrolet 2 79.860 31.462 27.717 119.910
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