Practice report
NASCAR Cup Las Vegas
Aric Almirola tops Friday's first Cup practice at Vegas
Aric Almirola led the way in Friday’s first NASCAR Cup Series practice session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Jim Utter
Edited: Feb 21, 2020, 10:11 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Almirola, who has finished in the top-10 three of the four races at Vegas since joining Stewart-Haas Racing, posted an average lap speed of 178.654 mph late in the session to top the speed chart.
“I’m looking forward to Vegas,” Almirola said. “It will be a great chance to grow together with (crew chief Mike Bugarewicz) and the new team to dial in communication and get on the same page.
“We already learned a lot during Daytona Speedweeks and I’m really looking forward to seeing where we are competitively.”
Almirola’s SHR teammate, Clint Bowyer, ended up second (178.383 mph) while Ty Dillon was third and the top Chevrolet (178.071 mph). Joey Logano was fourth and Alex Bowman completed the top-five.
Rounding out the top-10 speeds were Matt DiBenedetto, Kurt Busch, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney.
Martin Truex Jr. was the top Toyota in the session and ended up 13th-fastest.
The Toyotas of Denny Hamlin, Truex, Erik Jones, Kyle Busch and Christopher Bell were docked 15 minutes of practice for making alterations to the manufacturer-designed shape of their cars’ fenders. The issue was discovered during Friday morning’s inspection.
Hamlin and Brennan Poole lost an additional 15 minutes of practice due to pre-race inspection issues at last weekend’s Daytona 500.
Read Also:
Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Mph 1 10 
Aric Almirola Ford 29 30.226 178.654 2 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 21 30.272 0.046 0.046 178.383 3 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 28 30.325 0.099 0.053 178.071 4 22 Joey Logano Ford 32 30.330 0.104 0.005 178.042 5 88 Alex Bowman Chevrolet 37 30.400 0.174 0.070 177.632 6 21 Matt DiBenedetto Ford 25 30.424 0.198 0.024 177.491 7 1 Kurt Busch Chevrolet 27 30.470 0.244 0.046 177.223 8 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 27 30.475 0.249 0.005 177.194 9 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 24 30.480 0.254 0.005 177.165 10 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 30 30.512 0.286 0.032 176.980 11 24 William Byron Chevrolet 26 30.540 0.314 0.028 176.817 12 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 29 30.562 0.336 0.022 176.690 13 41 Cole Custer Ford 27 30.604 0.378 0.042 176.448 14 19 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 25 30.604 0.378 0.000 176.448 15 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 19 30.616 0.390 0.012 176.378 16 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 33 30.627 0.401 0.011 176.315 17 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 32 30.677 0.451 0.050 176.028 18 6 Ross Chastain Ford 28 30.678 0.452 0.001 176.022 19 8 Tyler Reddick Chevrolet 38 30.711 0.485 0.033 175.833 20 20 Erik Jones Toyota 19 30.720 0.494 0.009 175.781 21 38 John Hunter Nemechek Ford 23 30.758 0.532 0.038 175.564 22 17 Chris Buescher Ford 26 30.796 0.570 0.038 175.347 23 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Chevrolet 25 30.813 0.587 0.017 175.251 24 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 37 30.824 0.598 0.011 175.188 25 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 17 30.836 0.610 0.012 175.120 26 43 Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 27 30.852 0.626 0.016 175.029 27 95 Christopher Bell Toyota 17 30.903 0.677 0.051 174.740 28 34 Michael McDowell Ford 21 30.932 0.706 0.029 174.576 29 37 Ryan Preece Chevrolet 19 30.985 0.759 0.053 174.278 30 96 
Daniel Suarez Toyota 21 31.153 0.927 0.168 173.338 31 15 Brennan Poole Chevrolet 11 31.460 1.234 0.307 171.647 32 32 Corey Lajoie Ford 23 31.469 1.243 0.009 171.597 33 52 J.J. Yeley Ford 4 31.633 1.407 0.164 170.708 34 00 Quin Houff Chevrolet 15 31.864 1.638 0.231 169.470 35 53 Joey Gase Ford 19 32.080 1.854 0.216 168.329 36 77 Reed Sorenson Chevrolet 3 32.085 1.859 0.005 168.303 37 51 Garrett Smithley Ford 1 32.751 2.525 0.666 164.880
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Dale Jr. defends Hamlin, compares it to Waltrip ‘01 celebration
Next article Kyle Busch on driver safety: "We're not invincible"
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jim Utter
Erik Jones agrees to multi-year contract extension with Legacy Motor Club
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Erik Jones agrees to multi-year contract extension with Legacy Motor Club
Goodyear's option tires at Richmond "were like Mario Kart with a star"
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond II
Goodyear's option tires at Richmond "were like Mario Kart with a star"
NASCAR: Austin Dillon move was "really close to crossing the line"
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond II
NASCAR: Austin Dillon move was "really close to crossing the line"
Latest news
Spire, Chris Gabehart reject Joe Gibbs Racing premise on deleted texts
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
4 h
Spire, Chris Gabehart reject Joe Gibbs Racing premise on deleted texts
Ricky Stenhouse explains his side of Michael McDowell conflict
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
8 h
Ricky Stenhouse explains his side of Michael McDowell conflict
Barnes: Why IndyCar’s updated licensing system fails its own integrity test
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 9 h
Barnes: Why IndyCar’s updated licensing system fails its own integrity test
Why NASCAR is not penalizing Stenhouse, McDowell for post-race theatrics
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
10 h
Why NASCAR is not penalizing Stenhouse, McDowell for post-race theatrics
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe