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