Practice report

NASCAR Cup Martinsville

Stewart-Haas Racing's Fords lead Saturday's first Cup practice

Stewart-Haas Racing teammates swept the top three positions in Saturday’s first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

Jim Utter

Published: Mar 23, 2019, 2:38 PM

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Clint Bowyer, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford Fusion Rush Truck Centers

Clint Bowyer, who won this race one year ago, led the way in the 50-minute practice session with an average lap speed of 97.673 mph.

Not far behind were his SHR teammates Daniel Suarez (97.257 mph) and Aric Almirola (97.003 mph). Martin Truex Jr. was fourth and last weekend’s race winner, Kyle Busch, completed the top-five.

Rounding out the Top 10 were Brad Keselowski, Chris Buescher, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott.

SHR’s fourth driver, Kevin Harvick, ended up 11th-fastest.

“You know I make fun of these other drivers sometimes for having tears in Victory Lane, but I’ve got to admit that moment got to me,” said Bowyer about his celebration with his young son, Cash, after the win last year.

“Cash is young enough that he had never been to Victory Lane before, so it was his first chance to be there. That’s something I always wanted to make happen.”

Kyle Busch had the fastest average lap speed (96.642 mph) among those drivers who ran at least 10 consecutive laps. Almirola and Truex were second and third, respectively, in that category.

Within the first two minutes of practice, William Byron appeared to have an issue with the right-front tire and tagged wall coming off Turn 2. He immediately took his No. 24 Chevrolet to the garage for repairs.

Almost 20 minutes into the session, Corey LaJoie got into the wall in between Turns 1 and 2 and did extensive damage to the right-side of his No. 32 Ford. The will move to a backup car which means LaJoie will have to start Sunday’s race from the rear of the field.

“That just sucks because we were making it really good,” LaJoie said. “I think we were 20th at the time, but I’ll tell you there is no coffee strong enough that will wake you up losing brakes into Turn 1 at Martinsville.”

Michael McDowell had to sit out the final 15 minutes of the practice session after his No. 34 failed pre-race inspection at Auto Club Speedway multiple times.

Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Mph 1 14 United States Clint Bowyer Ford 49 19.387 97.674 2 41 Mexico Daniel Suarez Ford 20 19.470 0.083 0.083 97.257 3 10 Aric Almirola Ford 43 19.521 0.134 0.051 97.003 4 19 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 45 19.534 0.147 0.013 96.939 5 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 51 19.545 0.158 0.011 96.884 6 2 United States Brad Keselowski Ford 50 19.576 0.189 0.031 96.731 7 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 43 19.593 0.206 0.017 96.647 8 22 Joey Logano Ford 67 19.620 0.233 0.027 96.514 9 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 53 19.634 0.247 0.014 96.445 10 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 62 19.634 0.247 0.000 96.445 11 4 United States Kevin Harvick Ford 44 19.640 0.253 0.006 96.415 12 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 52 19.641 0.254 0.001 96.411 13 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 55 19.668 0.281 0.027 96.278 14 20 Erik Jones Toyota 44 19.671 0.284 0.003 96.264 15 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 56 19.694 0.307 0.023 96.151 16 3 United States Austin Dillon Chevrolet 46 19.696 0.309 0.002 96.141 17 21 Paul Menard Ford 48 19.726 0.339 0.030 95.995 18 88 Alex Bowman Chevrolet 60 19.733 0.346 0.007 95.961 19 43 Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 44 19.738 0.351 0.005 95.937 20 47 Ryan Preece Chevrolet 42 19.742 0.355 0.004 95.917 21 13 United States Ty Dillon Chevrolet 47 19.751 0.364 0.009 95.874 22 95 Matt DiBenedetto Toyota 46 19.757 0.370 0.006 95.845 23 1 Kurt Busch Chevrolet 41 19.759 0.372 0.002 95.835 24 32 Corey Lajoie Ford 22 19.769 0.382 0.010 95.786 25 6 Ryan Newman Ford 36 19.790 0.403 0.021 95.685 26 38 United States David Ragan Ford 40 19.808 0.421 0.018 95.598 27 8 Daniel Hemric Chevrolet 54 19.859 0.472 0.051 95.352 28 34 Michael McDowell Ford 23 19.869 0.482 0.010 95.304 29 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 48 19.879 0.492 0.010 95.256 30 36 Matt Tifft Ford 39 19.925 0.538 0.046 95.036 31 15 United States Ross Chastain Chevrolet 35 19.967 0.580 0.042 94.836 32 00 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 38 20.032 0.645 0.065 94.529 33 52 Jeb Burton Chevrolet 17 20.236 0.849 0.204 93.576 34 51 Cody Ware Chevrolet 9 20.262 0.875 0.026 93.456 35 77 Canada D.J. Kennington Chevrolet 27 20.435 1.048 0.173 92.665 36 24 United States William Byron Chevrolet 2 20.606 1.219 0.171 91.896

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