Ryan Blaney leads Saturday morning Cup practice

Blaney, who starts seventh in Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, posted an average lap speed of 188.055 mph very early in the 55-minute session.

Erik Jones posted the second-fastest speed (187.598 mph) but with about six minutes remaining in the session, he radioed to his team that he thought “something broke” on his No. 77 Furniture Row Racing Toyota and drove directly to his garage stall for his team to inspect the car.

Martin Truex Jr., who dominated last year’s 600, was third-fastest, rookie Daniel Suarez was fourth and Trevor Bayne was fifth.

Pole-winner Kevin Harvick ended up with the ninth-fastest lap.

Some teams did make a conscious effort to begin running in the high groove in the corners, which the track has been treating with a VHT resin this week to help improve the grip.

“There's definitely more grip up there,” driver Landon Cassill said over his team radio, but he noted he didn’t think it was as fast as he thought it would be.

Eight cars began the 55-minute session with the loss of 15 minutes of practice due to pre-qualifying inspection issues from Thursday: Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Paul Menard, David Ragan, Kurt Busch, Larson, Corey LaJoie and Chris Buescher.

Buescher also lost pit stall selection for Sunday’s race.

Truex led the way in best average speed among those who ran at least 10 consecutive laps (184.886 mph). Kyle Busch was second and Kyle Larson - who will start from the rear of Sunday's race because he failed to clear inspection prior to qualifying - was third.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	21	Ryan Blaney	Ford	26	28.715			188.055
2	77	Erik Jones	Toyota	12	28.785	0.070	0.070	187.598
3	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	24	28.864	0.149	0.079	187.084
4	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	28	28.902	0.187	0.038	186.838
5	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	27	28.995	0.280	0.093	186.239
6	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	22	29.000	0.285	0.005	186.207
7	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	24	29.043	0.328	0.043	185.931
8	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	30	29.045	0.330	0.002	185.918
9	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	18	29.100	0.385	0.055	185.567
10	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	24	29.114	0.399	0.014	185.478

CLICK HERE for complete practice results