Practice report

NASCAR Cup Michigan

Ryan Blaney tops first Michigan Cup practice at 202.617mph

Ryan Blaney topped Friday’s NASCAR Cup practice session at Michigan International Speedway with a lap over 202 mph.

Jim Utter

Edited: Jun 8, 2018, 5:16 PM

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Blaney was one of nine cars to post average lap speeds of over 200 mph in the abbreviated session. Just minutes before its conclusion, Blaney rocketed to the top of the speed chart with a lap at 202.617 mph.

Michigan has been a difficult track for Blaney, with only one finish better than 15th in six series starts.

Kyle Busch was second (201.935 mph) and Blaney’s Team Penske teammate, Brad Keselowski, was third (201.867 mph). Kevin Harvick and Chase Elliott completed the top-five.

Rounding out the Top 10 were Kurt Busch, Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard, Aric Almirola and Joey Logano.

The start of the session was delayed by five minutes due to fuel spilled on the backstretch, apparently from one of the jet dryers that was working the track following the conclusion of ARCA practice.

About six minutes after the session began, the practice was put under caution again as there were more complaints about fluid on the backstretch.

Once the area was cleaned again, Hamlin was first car back on the track but after running through the area he declared it was “no good.”

NASCAR ended up extending the session an extra 10 minutes after several teams complained about the lack of track time do to no fault of their own.

Three drivers were forced to sit out the final 15 minutes of Friday’s practice – Garrett Smithley (late to inspection last weekend) and Elliott and Logano (both failed inspection twice last weekend).

Cla#DriverManufacturerLapsTimeGapIntervalMph 1 12 united_states Ryan Blaney Ford 5 35.535 202.617 2 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 5 35.655 0.120 0.120 201.935 3 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 5 35.667 0.132 0.012 201.867 4 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 5 35.736 0.201 0.069 201.478 5 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 5 35.797 0.262 0.061 201.134 6 41 Kurt Busch Ford 9 35.887 0.352 0.090 200.630 7 14 united_states Clint Bowyer Ford 14 35.898 0.363 0.011 200.568 8 21 Paul Menard Ford 5 35.944 0.409 0.046 200.312 9 10 Aric Almirola Ford 8 35.977 0.442 0.033 200.128 10 22 Joey Logano Ford 5 36.004 0.469 0.027 199.978 11 78 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 5 36.025 0.490 0.021 199.861 12 88 united_states Alex Bowman Chevrolet 13 36.046 0.511 0.021 199.745 13 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 10 36.079 0.544 0.033 199.562 14 31 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 7 36.098 0.563 0.019 199.457 15 20 Erik Jones Toyota 10 36.109 0.574 0.011 199.396 16 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 5 36.137 0.602 0.028 199.242 17 3 united_states Austin Dillon Chevrolet 7 36.162 0.627 0.025 199.104 18 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 4 36.175 0.640 0.013 199.032 19 24 William Byron Chevrolet 14 36.182 0.647 0.007 198.994 20 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 8 36.195 0.660 0.013 198.923 21 47 A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 9 36.206 0.671 0.011 198.862 22 38 united_states David Ragan Ford 9 36.236 0.701 0.030 198.697 23 6 Matt Kenseth Ford 14 36.239 0.704 0.003 198.681 24 19 mexico Daniel Suarez Toyota 9 36.240 0.705 0.001 198.675 25 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 10 36.264 0.729 0.024 198.544 26 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 6 36.279 0.744 0.015 198.462 27 34 united_states Michael McDowell Ford 6 36.285 0.750 0.006 198.429 28 95 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 8 36.385 0.850 0.100 197.884 29 43 Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 6 36.408 0.873 0.023 197.759 30 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 8 36.488 0.953 0.080 197.325 31 32 Matt DiBenedetto Ford 5 36.642 1.107 0.154 196.496 32 00 united_states Landon Cassill Chevrolet 14 37.530 1.995 0.888 191.847 33 15 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 14 37.961 2.426 0.431 189.668 34 72 Corey Lajoie Chevrolet 13 38.116 2.581 0.155 188.897 35 23 Gray Gaulding Toyota 10 38.236 2.701 0.120 188.304 36 51 B.J. McLeod Chevrolet 8 38.410 2.875 0.174 187.451 37 7 canada D.J. Kennington Chevrolet 14 38.630 3.095 0.220 186.384 38 99 united_states Garrett Smithley Chevrolet 9 39.176 3.641 0.546 183.786 39 66 Timmy Hill Toyota 3 39.180 3.645 0.004 183.767

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