Practice report

NASCAR Cup Darlington

Ryan Newman tops Chase Elliott in final Darlington practice

Ryan Newman ended up fastest in Friday’s final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.

Jim Utter

Edited: Sep 6, 2018, 8:46 AM

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Ryan Newman, Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet Camaro Caterpillar

Newman’s posted a best average lap speed of 171.698 mph very early in the 50-minute session. Chase Elliott ended up second (171.512 mph) and Jimmie Johnson third (171.023 mph). They were the only driver to cross eclipse the 171 mph mark.

Kyle Busch was fourth fastest and Kurt Busch completed the top-five.

Rounding out the Top 10 were Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne, Clint Bowyer, Ryan Blaney and Alex Bowman.

Newman is still looking for his first win of the season in the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. His best finish this year was sixth at New Hampshire last month.

“Really good balance-wise, end-to-end on the race track,” Newman said of his car over the radio during his last run on the track.

About 20 minutes into the session, Denny Hamlin – who was fastest in Friday’s first practice – scraped the outside wall but the damage didn’t appear to be very serious.

Shortly afterwards, Aric Almirola also made contact with the wall, but his damage on the No. 10 Ford seemed more substantial.

“Got the right side, bad,” Almirola said over his team radio. “I got it bad, I’m telling you.”

Cla # Driver 4506 Laps Time Gap Interval Mph 1 31 United States Ryan Newman Chevrolet 43 28.641 171.698 2 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 38 28.672 0.031 0.031 171.512 3 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 35 28.754 0.113 0.082 171.023 4 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 46 28.771 0.130 0.017 170.922 5 41 Kurt Busch Ford 33 28.865 0.224 0.094 170.365 6 6 United States Matt Kenseth Ford 26 28.920 0.279 0.055 170.041 7 95 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 32 28.949 0.308 0.029 169.871 8 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 35 28.961 0.320 0.012 169.801 9 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 43 28.967 0.326 0.006 169.766 10 88 Alex Bowman Chevrolet 42 29.014 0.373 0.047 169.491 11 10 United States Aric Almirola Ford 24 29.066 0.425 0.052 169.187 12 22 Joey Logano Ford 62 29.103 0.462 0.037 168.972 13 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 49 29.110 0.469 0.007 168.932 14 20 Erik Jones Toyota 45 29.136 0.495 0.026 168.781 15 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 52 29.172 0.531 0.036 168.573 16 2 United States Brad Keselowski Ford 42 29.174 0.533 0.002 168.561 17 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 23 29.244 0.603 0.070 168.158 18 21 Paul Menard Ford 43 29.298 0.657 0.054 167.848 19 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 34 29.300 0.659 0.002 167.836 20 24 William Byron Chevrolet 43 29.310 0.669 0.010 167.779 21 42 United States Kyle Larson Chevrolet 29 29.321 0.680 0.011 167.716 22 19 Mexico Daniel Suarez Toyota 32 29.332 0.691 0.011 167.653 23 34 Michael McDowell Ford 26 29.356 0.715 0.024 167.516 24 78 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 28 29.361 0.720 0.005 167.487 25 32 Matt DiBenedetto Ford 30 29.376 0.735 0.015 167.402 26 47 United States A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 27 29.470 0.829 0.094 166.868 27 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 23 29.478 0.837 0.008 166.823 28 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 26 29.529 0.888 0.051 166.535 29 43 Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 25 29.531 0.890 0.002 166.523 30 38 David Ragan Ford 7 29.599 0.958 0.068 166.141 31 1 United States Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 13 29.638 0.997 0.039 165.922 32 72 Corey Lajoie Chevrolet 18 29.875 1.234 0.237 164.606 33 96 Jeffrey Earnhardt Toyota 24 30.054 1.413 0.179 163.625 34 00 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 23 30.291 1.650 0.237 162.345 35 15 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 13 30.646 2.005 0.355 160.465 36 99 United States Derrike Cope Chevrolet 14 30.655 2.014 0.009 160.418 37 66 Timmy Hill Toyota 12 30.696 2.055 0.041 160.203 38 52 J.J. Yeley Chevrolet 12 30.712 2.071 0.016 160.120 39 51 B.J. McLeod Chevrolet 2 31.269 2.628 0.557 157.268 40 23 Joey Gase Toyota 4 31.889 3.248 0.620 154.210

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