Larson tops incident-packed first practice at Charlotte

On Friday, he hit the top of the speed chart with a lap of 192.082mph after 12 laps in first practice for the Bank of America 500. 

“Charlotte has been kind of a hit or miss track for me, but I’m usually pretty good during the day there, so hopefully a day race will favor me,” Larson said. “We obviously want to win in each round and not have to worry about the points, but if we can continue to be consistent and finish around the top-five, we should put ourselves in a good position to move on. We just need to stay focused and work to be mistake free this weekend.”

Ryan Newman was second followed by Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Martin Truex Jr., Michael McDowell, Jamie McMurray and Kurt Busch.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. plowed into the Turn 4 wall working his fifth lap in practice. He’d posted a quick lap of 187.780mph before the car snapped loose. The No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports team pulled out Earnhardt’s back up car. 

“There was nothing I could do, it just took off,” Earnhardt said. “I got into this black stuff and it just took off into the fence. I think the car was pretty good, but had to pull a back-up out. It should be fine though. It’s a good thing that it happened early and we will get to practice tomorrow and get to work on it.” 

The race returned to green with 85-minutes remaining in the session. Michael McDowell’s lap of 190.255mph was fastest followed by Larson, Elliott, Kurt Busch, Earnhardt, Almirola, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne, AJ Allmendinger, Austin Dillon, Jamie McMurray, Paul Menard, Danica Patrick, Joey Logano, Trevor Bayne, Chris Buescher and Ty Dillon. Ryan Blaney was the next driver to top the chart (190.853mph) just after the 11-minute mark. Hamlin followed with a lap of 191.137mph.

In the first 15-minutes, Hamlin retained the top spot followed by Blaney, McDowell, Erik Jones (189.954mph), Bowyer (189.003mph), Larson (188.009mph), Elliott (187.846mph) Kurt Busch (187.846mph) and Earnhardt.

Over the next five minutes, Kyle Busch posted the fifth-fastest lap (190.007mph) and Keselowski speed of 189.421mph was seventh quick. 

NASCAR called a caution for possible oil in Turn 4 at the 20-minute mark. Ten minutes later, practice continued with 34 drivers making initial runs. Hamlin remained on top of the speed chart followed by Blaney, Ryan Newman (190.611mph), McDowell, Busch, Jones, Keselowski, Bowyer, Larson and Elliott. 

Kurt Busch, Earnhardt, Martin Truex Jr. (187.546mph), Aric Almirola, Kevin Harvick (187.292mph), Daniel Suarez and Matt Kenseth rounded out the top 20 speeds.

Keselowski lost the back end of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford coming out of Turn 4 on his third lap. After the track was clean, Newman shot to the top of the speed chart with a lap of 191.442mph. 

Jimmie Johnson posted his first laps 45 minutes into first practice. He was initially 11th-quick with his two-lap run (188.587mph) before Jamie McMurray bumped him with a lap of 188.983mph. Truex knocked both drivers down the board with his lap of 189.274mph.

Larson (192.082mph) bumped Newman from the top spot just prior to the one-hour mark. Hamlin dropped to third followed by Blaney, McDowell, Bowyer, Austin Dillon, Kahne, Kyle Busch and Jones.

NASCAR called Kyle Busch to the hauler for speeding on pit road just after the first hour. He’s completed four laps. 

Earnhardt returned to the track in his back up car 65 minutes into practice. He ran two laps with a top speed of 187.376mph. Larson held the top spot as driver continued making mock qualifying runs. Harvick bounced up to third (191.225mph) at the 70-minute mark. Hamlin dropped to fourth followed by Blaney, McDowell, McMurray (190.658mph), Allmendinger, Bowyer and Dillon. Elliott vaulted to fifth (191.090mph).

With 10 minutes to go, Kyle Busch pounded the wall in Turn 4. He was the fourth driver to struggle in Turn 4 along with Earnhardt, Keselowski and David Ragan.

“Done,” Busch told the team as NASCAR waved the yellow again.

After his first run Busch remarked that the VHT was too slick. “The juice sucks, it's really bad. It’s because they didn't use the tire dragon on it to burn it in.”

Truex moved up to seventh (190.772mph) over the final 10 minutes.

Watch Dale Earnhardt Jr. have trouble early in the practice session: 

Kyle Busch also had trouble in the first practice session:

Brad Keselowski also went for a spin:

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	12	28.113			192.082
2	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	7	28.207	0.094	0.094	191.442
3	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	8	28.239	0.126	0.032	191.225
4	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	8	28.252	0.139	0.013	191.137
5	24	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	14	28.259	0.146	0.007	191.090
6	21	Ryan Blaney	Ford	9	28.294	0.181	0.035	190.853
7	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	9	28.306	0.193	0.012	190.772
8	95	Michael McDowell	Chevrolet	5	28.307	0.194	0.001	190.766
9	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	14	28.323	0.210	0.016	190.658
10	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	13	28.333	0.220	0.010	190.590
11	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	16	28.364	0.251	0.031	190.382
12	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	11	28.382	0.269	0.018	190.261
13	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	13	28.393	0.280	0.011	190.188
14	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	17	28.397	0.284	0.004	190.161
15	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	6	28.399	0.286	0.002	190.148
16	20	Matt Kenseth	Toyota	8	28.402	0.289	0.003	190.127
17	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	6	28.420	0.307	0.018	190.007
18	77	Erik Jones	Toyota	8	28.424	0.311	0.004	189.980
19	27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	19	28.453	0.340	0.029	189.787
20	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	5	28.508	0.395	0.055	189.421
21	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	9	28.537	0.424	0.029	189.228
22	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	17	28.669	0.556	0.132	188.357
23	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	20	28.713	0.600	0.044	188.068
24	22	Joey Logano	Ford	22	28.729	0.616	0.016	187.963
25	10	Danica Patrick	Ford	20	28.756	0.643	0.027	187.787
26	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	8	28.757	0.644	0.001	187.780
27	43	Aric Almirola	Ford	6	28.796	0.683	0.039	187.526
28	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	18	28.876	0.763	0.080	187.007
29	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	15	28.950	0.837	0.074	186.528
30	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	12	29.133	1.020	0.183	185.357
31	72	Cole Whitt	Chevrolet	11	29.360	1.247	0.227	183.924
32	34	Landon Cassill	Ford	21	29.441	1.328	0.081	183.418
33	15	Reed Sorenson	Chevrolet	6	29.612	1.499	0.171	182.359
34	38	David Ragan	Ford	3	29.881	1.768	0.269	180.717
35	33	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Chevrolet	15	29.977	1.864	0.096	180.138
36	66	Timmy Hill	Chevrolet	1	30.077	1.964	0.100	179.539
37	51	B.J. McLeod	Chevrolet	7	30.204	2.091	0.127	178.784
38	55	Gray Gaulding	Toyota	12	30.266	2.153	0.062	178.418