Aric Almirola fastest in Saturday's first Cup practice at Kansas

Almirola, who picked up his first win of the 2018 season last weekend at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, ended the session with fastest average lap speed (186.683 mph).

He’s off to another strong weekend after qualifying third for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas.

Erik Jones (186.599 mph) and Martin Truex Jr. (186.355 mph) were second and third, respectively. Clint Bowyer was fourth and Kyle Busch completed the top-five.

Rounding out the Top 10 were Kyle Larson, Ryan Newman, Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman and pole-winner Joey Logano.

Despite being locked into the next round, Almirola sees only an “upside” to this weekend’s race.

“There is really no step back for us. If anything I think it allows us to be less guarded. Coming to Kansas, there is no downside and only opportunity for upside. If we wreck on Lap 1, it doesn't matter,” he said.

“We are still going to the Round of 8. If we win both stages and win the race, we can have seven more points when the points reset next week. So that is really what we are looking at. You can only go up.”

About 20 minutes into the session, smoke began pouring out of the No. 1 Chevrolet of Jamie McMurray and he immediately took his car to the garage.

There were no other incidents during the practice.

Four drivers – Landon Cassill, J.J. Yeley, Timmy Hill and Kyle Weatherman – had to sit out the final 15 minutes in the session as all were late to qualifying inspection on Friday.

Cla	#	Driver	4506	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	33	28.926			186.683
2	20	Erik Jones	Toyota	23	28.939	0.013	0.013	186.599
3	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	25	28.977	0.051	0.038	186.355
4	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	36	28.985	0.059	0.008	186.303
5	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	33	28.993	0.067	0.008	186.252
6	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	35	29.071	0.145	0.078	185.752
7	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	29	29.089	0.163	0.018	185.637
8	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	30	29.099	0.173	0.010	185.573
9	88	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	21	29.100	0.174	0.001	185.567
10	22	Joey Logano	Ford	26	29.103	0.177	0.003	185.548
11	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	39	29.113	0.187	0.010	185.484
12	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	32	29.122	0.196	0.009	185.427
13	21	Paul Menard	Ford	30	29.156	0.230	0.034	185.211
14	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	16	29.172	0.246	0.016	185.109
15	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	27	29.186	0.260	0.014	185.020
16	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.	Chevrolet	20	29.220	0.294	0.034	184.805
17	95	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	24	29.274	0.348	0.054	184.464
18	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	31	29.275	0.349	0.001	184.458
19	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	5	29.276	0.350	0.001	184.451
20	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	39	29.276	0.350	0.000	184.451
21	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	24	29.306	0.380	0.030	184.263
22	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	28	29.307	0.381	0.001	184.256
23	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	20	29.324	0.398	0.017	184.150
24	38	David Ragan	Ford	27	29.325	0.399	0.001	184.143
25	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	28	29.352	0.426	0.027	183.974
26	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	21	29.371	0.445	0.019	183.855
27	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	21	29.448	0.522	0.077	183.374
28	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	23	29.454	0.528	0.006	183.337
29	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	17	29.660	0.734	0.206	182.063
30	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	11	29.829	0.903	0.169	181.032
31	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	16	29.900	0.974	0.071	180.602
32	15	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	19	30.070	1.144	0.170	179.581
33	96	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Toyota	18	30.178	1.252	0.108	178.938
34	00	Landon Cassill	Chevrolet	10	30.252	1.326	0.074	178.501
35	99	Kyle Weatherman	Chevrolet	8	30.309	1.383	0.057	178.165
36	72	Corey Lajoie	Chevrolet	18	30.365	1.439	0.056	177.836
37	23	J.J. Yeley	Toyota	8	30.464	1.538	0.099	177.258
38	7	Reed Sorenson	Chevrolet	11	30.948	2.022	0.484	174.486
39	51	B.J. McLeod	Chevrolet	13	31.084	2.158	0.136	173.723
40	66	Timmy Hill	Toyota	8	31.364	2.438	0.280	172.172