Championship favorite Martin Truex Jr. leads final practice

Truex – one of the four drivers competing for the series championship in Sunday’s Ford 400 season finale – led the way in Saturday’s final practice at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

His average single lap speed of 171.195 mph was posted early in the session and easily topped second place Clint Bowyer (169.790 mph).

Truex, who will start second in Sunday’s race, said he was been anxiously awaiting the chance to add his first series championship to his racing career resume.

“I’ve been waiting for Homestead since this weekend in 2015,” Truex said. “Honestly, since that race was over, it was like, ‘alright.’ From there, we’ve been working since to get back here and have another shot at it.”

The other three title contenders – Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick – ended up sixth, 11th and 18th-fastest, respectively, in the final session.

Harvick and Keselowski both cut short their practice sessions after feeling comfortable with how their cars were performing.

Harvick, who was particularly pleased with the long-run speed of his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing, said having a shot at a second series title was somewhat of a surprise.

“I would tell you three months ago that there was no way we would be in this position,” Harvick said. “It’s a huge tribute to Stewart-Haas Racing and Ford to get the cars to the level where we felt we could compete for races and for the championship.

“Then we go to Texas and beat (Truex), win the race and here we are.”

Pole-winner Denny Hamlin was third-fastest, rookie Erik Jones was fourth and Ryan Blaney completed the top-five.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who will compete in his final race on Sunday, was seventh-fastest.

The teams of Austin Dillon and Matt DiBenedetto were forced to miss the first 15 minutes of final practice after each failed qualifying inspection twice this weekend. Harvick, Chase Elliott, David Starr and Cole Whitt each missed the first 15 minutes of the session due to failing pre-race inspection twice at Phoenix last weekend.

The teams of David Ragan, Jimmie Johnson and Michael McDowell were each forced to miss the first 30 minutes of final practice after they all failed qualifying inspection three times this weekend.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	41	31.543			171.195
2	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	33	31.804	0.261	0.261	169.790
3	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	52	31.807	0.264	0.003	169.774
4	77	Erik Jones	Toyota	40	31.817	0.274	0.010	169.721
5	21	Ryan Blaney	Ford	36	31.849	0.306	0.032	169.550
6	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	54	31.860	0.317	0.011	169.492
7	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	38	31.884	0.341	0.024	169.364
8	20	Matt Kenseth	Toyota	47	31.907	0.364	0.023	169.242
9	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	51	31.943	0.400	0.036	169.051
10	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	45	31.981	0.438	0.038	168.850
11	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	42	31.986	0.443	0.005	168.824
12	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	36	32.083	0.540	0.097	168.313
13	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	25	32.098	0.555	0.015	168.235
14	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	38	32.123	0.580	0.025	168.104
15	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	46	32.133	0.590	0.010	168.052
16	22	Joey Logano	Ford	48	32.166	0.623	0.033	167.879
17	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	51	32.199	0.656	0.033	167.707
18	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	40	32.375	0.832	0.176	166.795
19	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	31	32.379	0.836	0.004	166.775
20	43	Aric Almirola	Ford	33	32.411	0.868	0.032	166.610
21	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	38	32.517	0.974	0.106	166.067
22	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	34	32.560	1.017	0.043	165.848
23	27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	40	32.681	1.138	0.121	165.234
24	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	42	32.688	1.145	0.007	165.198
25	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	34	32.740	1.197	0.052	164.936
26	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	31	32.773	1.230	0.033	164.770
27	24	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	35	32.774	1.231	0.001	164.765
28	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	21	32.865	1.322	0.091	164.309
29	95	Michael McDowell	Chevrolet	20	33.079	1.536	0.214	163.246
30	10	Danica Patrick	Ford	37	33.089	1.546	0.010	163.196
31	15	Reed Sorenson	Chevrolet	22	33.103	1.560	0.014	163.127
32	34	Landon Cassill	Ford	41	33.127	1.584	0.024	163.009
33	38	David Ragan	Ford	25	33.204	1.661	0.077	162.631
34	72	Cole Whitt	Chevrolet	19	33.608	2.065	0.404	160.676
35	23	Corey Lajoie	Toyota	22	33.880	2.337	0.272	159.386
36	33	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Chevrolet	23	34.145	2.602	0.265	158.149
37	83	Joey Gase		21	34.411	2.868	0.266	156.927
38	66	David Starr	Chevrolet	19	35.280	3.737	0.869	153.061
39	51	Ray Black Jr.	Chevrolet	4	35.410	3.867	0.130	152.499