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Logano leads final practice at Martinsville

Joey Logano posted the fastest single-lap speed in Happy Hour at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday.

Joey Logano, Team Penske, Ford Fusion

Joey Logano, Team Penske, Ford Fusion

Barry Cantrell / NKP / Motorsport Images

In the closing moments of the 55-minute session, Logano bumped Chase Elliott with a lap of 94.416mph after 87 laps.

"It feels great," Logano said with a laugh. "It feels so good. Oh man, it feels so good to see some speed in this thing. I feel like this is our best shot for the rest of the season to try and get a win here at Martinsville. We've had some fast cars here in the past, so it's nice to see some speed in our car and we have a good shot at it.

"It seems like our long-run speed is pretty good. We were a little bit off on the front-side of a run. We made a qualifying run at the end and were able to post a decent lap." 

Elliott remained second followed by Martin Truex Jr., Clint Bowyer, Kasey Kahne, Jamie McMurray, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Aric Almirola and Austin Dillon. Denny Hamlin’s 88 laps were the most completed during the exercise. 

Kyle Busch led the Best 10 Consecutive Lap Average category with a speed of 93.186mph followed by Truex, Johnson, Keselowski, Bowyer, Allmendinger, Newman, McMurray, Logano and Elliott.

In the first five minutes of final practice, Truex Jr. topped the speed chart with a time of 20.179-seconds (93.840mph). Keselowski was second-quick (93.719mph) followed by Bowyer (93.511mph), AJ Allmendinger (93.546mph), Johnson (93.433mph), Newman (93.331mph), Earnhardt Jr.(93.221mph), Austin Dillon (93.184mph), Daniel Suarez (93.175mph) and Jamie McMurray (93.157mph).

Joey Logano ran 11th followed by Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Paul Menard, Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne, Kevin Harvick, Erik Jones, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Aric Almirola. Twenty-nine drivers completed at least one lap in the first five minutes. 

Danica Patrick, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott and Chris Buescher waited on pit road with 15-minute practice holds. Ty Dillon was scheduled for a 30-minute time out.

Elliott shot to the top of the pylon on his second lap with a speed of 94.326mph. Kyle Busch was fourth-quick (93.664mph) after his first run. 

Jones brought out the first caution when he spun in Turn 2 just before the 20-minute mark. Jones had completed 15 laps and was 22nd-quick when he wheel-hopped coming through the corner and tagged the right rear of the No. 77 Toyota. 

Elliott remained the fastest in single-lap speeds followed by Truex, Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Bowyer, Allmendinger, Johnson, Austin Dillon, Newman and Earnhardt when the race track returned to green. 

In qualifying trim, McMurray posted the third fastest time (20.201-seconds) by the 30-minute mark. Keselowski dropped to fourth followed by Kyle Busch, Bowyer, Allmendinger, Johnson, Dillon and Newman. 

Kahne jumped to second with a speed of 93.896mph 35-minutes into the session. Bowyer bounced back up to third (93.901mph) 45-minutes in. Kahne dropped to fourth followed by McMurray, Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Almirola, Dillon and Newman.

In the final two minutes, Logano vaulted to the top in qualifying trim.

"There's still a lot of unknowns tomorrow with the weather," Logano added. "That's going to change the track not only with the rain washing away a lot of the rubber but with the cold temperatures and how the track is going to react and how the tire is going to react to that as well as for as laying into the track is a big question for us. The good news is the car had good speed in the first practice and the second practice so it shows that we have something to race with this weekend and that's exciting."

Cla#DriverManufacturerLapsTimeGapIntervalMph
1 22 united_states Joey Logano  Ford 87 20.056     94.416
2 24 united_states Chase Elliott  Chevrolet 64 20.075 0.019 0.019 94.326
3 78 united_states Martin Truex Jr.  Toyota 46 20.083 0.027 0.008 94.289
4 14 united_states Clint Bowyer  Ford 58 20.166 0.110 0.083 93.901
5 5 united_states Kasey Kahne  Chevrolet 74 20.167 0.111 0.001 93.896
6 1 united_states Jamie McMurray  Chevrolet 86 20.201 0.145 0.034 93.738
7 2 united_states Brad Keselowski  Ford 85 20.205 0.149 0.004 93.719
8 18 united_states Kyle Busch  Toyota 67 20.217 0.161 0.012 93.664
9 43 united_states Aric Almirola  Ford 77 20.237 0.181 0.020 93.571
10 3 united_states Austin Dillon  Chevrolet 63 20.239 0.183 0.002 93.562
11 31 united_states Ryan Newman  Chevrolet 72 20.255 0.199 0.016 93.488
12 47 united_states A.J. Allmendinger  Chevrolet 61 20.262 0.206 0.007 93.456
13 48 united_states Jimmie Johnson  Chevrolet 75 20.263 0.207 0.001 93.451
14 88 united_states Dale Earnhardt Jr.  Chevrolet 67 20.313 0.257 0.050 93.221
15 19 mexico Daniel Suarez  Toyota 80 20.323 0.267 0.010 93.175
16 11 united_states Denny Hamlin  Toyota 88 20.335 0.279 0.012 93.120
17 42 united_states Kyle Larson  Chevrolet 73 20.343 0.287 0.008 93.084
18 17 united_states Ricky Stenhouse Jr.  Ford 94 20.344 0.288 0.001 93.079
19 38 united_states David Ragan  Ford 44 20.344 0.288 0.000 93.079
20 27 united_states Paul Menard  Chevrolet 76 20.349 0.293 0.005 93.056
21 41 united_states Kurt Busch  Ford 62 20.360 0.304 0.011 93.006
22 21 united_states Ryan Blaney  Ford 55 20.373 0.317 0.013 92.947
23 20 united_states Matt Kenseth  Toyota 46 20.378 0.322 0.005 92.924
24 37 united_states Chris Buescher  Chevrolet 32 20.378 0.322 0.000 92.924
25 4 united_states Kevin Harvick  Ford 37 20.387 0.331 0.009 92.883
26 77 united_states Erik Jones  Toyota 15 20.424 0.368 0.037 92.714
27 10 united_states Danica Patrick  Ford 48 20.479 0.423 0.055 92.465
28 6 united_states Trevor Bayne  Ford 50 20.500 0.444 0.021 92.371
29 72 united_states Cole Whitt  Chevrolet 47 20.502 0.446 0.002 92.362
30 83 united_states Gray Gaulding  Toyota 35 20.512 0.456 0.010 92.317
31 32 united_states Matt DiBenedetto  Ford 87 20.515 0.459 0.003 92.303
32 34 united_states Landon Cassill  Ford 60 20.516 0.460 0.001 92.299
33 95 united_states Michael McDowell  Chevrolet 70 20.525 0.469 0.009 92.258
34 13 united_states Ty Dillon  Chevrolet 35 20.544 0.488 0.019 92.173
35 23 united_states Corey Lajoie  Toyota 52 20.545 0.489 0.001 92.168
36 33 united_states Jeffrey Earnhardt  Chevrolet 45 20.648 0.592 0.103 91.709
37 15 united_states Reed Sorenson  Chevrolet 38 20.685 0.629 0.037 91.545
38 51 united_states Kyle Weatherman  Chevrolet 27 20.824 0.768 0.139 90.934
39 7 united_states Hermie Sadler  Chevrolet 22 20.891 0.835 0.067 90.642
40 66 united_states Carl Long  Chevrolet 49 21.241 1.185 0.350 89.148

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