Practice report
NASCAR Cup Kansas
Aric Almirola tops Bowyer in first Cup practice at Kansas
Aric Almirola took advantage of some late-session drafting and ended up fastest in Friday’s first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice session at Kansas.
Jim Utter
Edited: May 10, 2019, 5:41 PM
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Almirola and his No. 10 Ford had topped the leaderboard early in the 50-minute session but returned to the top when a large group of cars began running together towards the end.
His average lap speed of 178.153 mph topped Clint Bowyer (178.153 mph) and Kyle Busch (177.160 mph) as Fords claimed three of the top four positions.
In Almirola’s three starts on 1.5-mile tracks this season, he has earned one pole and three top-10s with 39 laps led.
“I feel really good about getting back to the 1.5-mile tracks,” he said. “We have had some bad luck and have made a few mistakes at the short tracks, so I’m ready to get to a track that we know we have to be good at because those are the tracks that make up the majority of the season.”
Brad Keselowski was fourth and William Byron completed the top-five.
Rounding out the top 10 were Jimmie Johnson, Austin Dillon, Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick and Alex Bowman.
Harvick had the fastest average lap speed (175.974 mph) among those drivers who ran at least 10 consecutive laps. Keselowski and Austin Dillon were second and third, respectively, in that category.
Three drivers – Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Preece and Bowman – had to sit out the final 15 minutes of the session after their respective cars twice failed pre-race inspection last weekend.
Matt Tifft sat out the final 30 minutes of practice after his car failed pre-race inspection three times last weekend.
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Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Mph 1 10 
Aric Almirola Ford 23 30.311 178.153 2 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 30 30.443 0.132 0.132 177.381 3 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 26 30.481 0.170 0.038 177.160 4 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 38 30.509 0.198 0.028 176.997 5 24 William Byron Chevrolet 41 30.519 0.208 0.010 176.939 6 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 34 30.520 0.209 0.001 176.933 7 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 45 30.533 0.222 0.013 176.858 8 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 41 30.564 0.253 0.031 176.678 9 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 37 30.566 0.255 0.002 176.667 10 88 Alex Bowman Chevrolet 22 30.577 0.266 0.011 176.603 11 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 30 30.617 0.306 0.040 176.373 12 22 Joey Logano Ford 38 30.633 0.322 0.016 176.280 13 8 Daniel Hemric Chevrolet 53 30.643 0.332 0.010 176.223 14 20 Erik Jones Toyota 29 30.660 0.349 0.017 176.125 15 41 
Daniel Suarez Ford 35 30.665 0.354 0.005 176.097 16 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 50 30.668 0.357 0.003 176.079 17 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 29 30.700 0.389 0.032 175.896 18 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 35 30.706 0.395 0.006 175.861 19 21 Paul Menard Ford 32 30.714 0.403 0.008 175.816 20 95 Matt DiBenedetto Toyota 29 30.733 0.422 0.019 175.707 21 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 50 30.736 0.425 0.003 175.690 22 1 Kurt Busch Chevrolet 36 30.757 0.446 0.021 175.570 23 31 Tyler Reddick Chevrolet 38 30.801 0.490 0.044 175.319 24 47 Ryan Preece Chevrolet 20 30.831 0.520 0.030 175.148 25 6 Ryan Newman Ford 27 30.861 0.550 0.030 174.978 26 00 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 24 30.863 0.552 0.002 174.967 27 19 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 10 30.872 0.561 0.009 174.916 28 43 Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 38 30.873 0.562 0.001 174.910 29 32 Corey Lajoie Ford 31 30.897 0.586 0.024 174.774 30 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 24 30.956 0.645 0.059 174.441 31 36 Matt Tifft Ford 15 30.979 0.668 0.023 174.312 32 34 Michael McDowell Ford 31 30.979 0.668 0.000 174.312 33 38 David Ragan Ford 19 30.994 0.683 0.015 174.227 34 15 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 27 31.150 0.839 0.156 173.355 35 52 Bayley Currey Ford 7 31.223 0.912 0.073 172.949 36 51 Cody Ware Chevrolet 4 31.707 1.396 0.484 170.309 37 27 Reed Sorenson Chevrolet 14 31.792 1.481 0.085 169.854 38 77 Quin Houff Chevrolet 25 31.911 1.600 0.119 169.221 39 66 Timmy Hill Toyota 14 32.784 2.473 0.873 164.714 40 46 Joey Gase Toyota 7 33.015 2.704 0.231 163.562
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