Testing report

NASCAR Cup

Almirola tops afternoon testing session, Hamlin crashes

Aric Almirola was fastest in Thursday afternoon’s NASCAR test session at Las Vegas that saw driver Denny Hamlin wreck the car with which he planned to compete in Sunday’s race.

Jim Utter

Edited: Mar 4, 2016, 12:24 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Aric Almirola, Richard Petty Motorsports Ford

Denny Hamlin crash damage

Kurt Busch, Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet

Hamlin was on his first run in the afternoon session following several set-up changes and pancaked the right side of his No. 11 Toyota.

The car was the one Hamlin planned to use in Sunday’s race (teams could use either their primary or backup cars in the test). His Joe Gibbs Racing team quickly went to work on his backup car and he was able to return to the track in the session.

“It just snapped loose first lap after the changes,” he said.

Almirola posted the fastest single-lap speed (192.940 mph). That was slightly off the pace of Jimmie Johnson (192.981 mph), who led the morning three-hour session.

In the afternoon, Austin Dillon was second-fastest (192.658 mph), Ryan Blaney was third (191.659 mph), Kurt Busch was fourth (191.381 mph) and Greg Biffle (189.800 mph) completed the top-five.

Brian Vickers, who is driving Tony Stewart’s No. 14 Chevrolet this weekend, completed the most laps during the afternoon test (117).

Kevin Harvick, the defending winner of the Kobalt 400, ended up 19th fastest in the afternoon session (188.271 mph).

Johnson posted the best 10 consecutive lap average speed of the afternoon session (187.325 mph). Matt Kenseth was second and Kurt Busch third.

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

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Jimmie Johnson leads morning test at Las Vegas

Next article Penske duo lead opening Sprint Cup practice in Las Vegas

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

F1 2026 calendar update: Imola GP off the table, no plan B if war escalates

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

6 min

F1 2026 calendar update: Imola GP off the table, no plan B if war escalates

A fond farewell to a few WEC favourites

WEC

Monza

A fond farewell to a few WEC favourites

Sebastien Loeb tests again as Project Rally One submits WRC homologation papers

WRC

WRC WRC 1 h

Sebastien Loeb tests again as Project Rally One submits WRC homologation papers

Valentino Rossi in new autobiography: '2015 still hurts, Marc Marquez wanted me to lose'

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Qatar GP

1 h

Valentino Rossi in new autobiography: '2015 still hurts, Marc Marquez wanted me to lose'

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