Almirola leads the way in Saturday's first Texas practice
Aric Almirola led another strong performance by Fords in Saturday’s first NASCAR Cup Series practice session at Texas Motor Speedway.
Photo by: John Harrelson / NKP / Motorsport Images
Almirola topped the 55-minute session with an average lap speed of 193.854 mph, just edging Toyota driver Kyle Busch (193.805 mph).
Almirola’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammate, Clint Bowyer, ended up third (193.771 mph) with Ford driver Brad Keselowski in fourth and Toyota driver Denny Hamlin completing the top-five.
“I think the most difficult thing at Texas now that it’s repaved and they changed the banking in Turns 1 and 2 is just the speed that you carry through the banked corner of Turns 3 and 4, and then you have to get slowed down for the flat Turns 1 and 2,” Almirola said.
“That has made it very challenging. Then, the exit of Turn 2 is very flat, so you’re carrying some speed there and the car just doesn’t have a lot of grip because there isn’t any banking.”
Almirola is currently ranked lowest in points among the eight remaining Cup playoff drivers but a win at Texas on Sunday or next week at Phoenix will lock him into the Championship 4 battle at Homestead, Fla.
In his last 10 starts at 1.5 mile tracks, Almirola has five top-10 finishes and has led 70 laps with an average starting position of 12.2 and an average finish of 14.4.
Rounding out the Top 10 were Kurt Busch, Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr.
Among the drivers who completed at least 10 consecutive laps, Harvick had the fastest average lap speed at 192.022 mph.
Late in the session, J.J. Yeley scrubbed the wall going through Turns 3 and 4 but didn’t appear to do significant damage to his No. 23 Toyota.
Cla | # | Driver | 4506 | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Ford | 39 | 27.856 | 193.854 | ||
2 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 30 | 27.863 | 0.007 | 0.007 | 193.805 |
3 | 14 | Clint Bowyer | Ford | 42 | 27.868 | 0.012 | 0.005 | 193.771 |
4 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Ford | 17 | 27.899 | 0.043 | 0.031 | 193.555 |
5 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 33 | 27.921 | 0.065 | 0.022 | 193.403 |
6 | 41 | Kurt Busch | Ford | 47 | 27.934 | 0.078 | 0.013 | 193.313 |
7 | 42 | Kyle Larson | Chevrolet | 43 | 27.936 | 0.080 | 0.002 | 193.299 |
8 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Ford | 34 | 27.938 | 0.082 | 0.002 | 193.285 |
9 | 22 | Joey Logano | Ford | 46 | 27.956 | 0.100 | 0.018 | 193.161 |
10 | 78 | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | 27 | 27.957 | 0.101 | 0.001 | 193.154 |
11 | 21 | Paul Menard | Ford | 27 | 27.966 | 0.110 | 0.009 | 193.092 |
12 | 20 | Erik Jones | Toyota | 32 | 27.970 | 0.114 | 0.004 | 193.064 |
13 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Ford | 24 | 27.972 | 0.116 | 0.002 | 193.050 |
14 | 37 | Chris Buescher | Chevrolet | 34 | 27.974 | 0.118 | 0.002 | 193.036 |
15 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Ford | 26 | 27.989 | 0.133 | 0.015 | 192.933 |
16 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | 22 | 28.039 | 0.183 | 0.050 | 192.589 |
17 | 24 | William Byron | Chevrolet | 39 | 28.039 | 0.183 | 0.000 | 192.589 |
18 | 19 | Daniel Suarez | Toyota | 45 | 28.080 | 0.224 | 0.041 | 192.308 |
19 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Chevrolet | 43 | 28.092 | 0.236 | 0.012 | 192.226 |
20 | 47 | A.J. Allmendinger | Chevrolet | 25 | 28.101 | 0.245 | 0.009 | 192.164 |
21 | 88 | Alex Bowman | Chevrolet | 30 | 28.109 | 0.253 | 0.008 | 192.109 |
22 | 6 | Trevor Bayne | Ford | 16 | 28.111 | 0.255 | 0.002 | 192.096 |
23 | 1 | Jamie McMurray | Chevrolet | 32 | 28.123 | 0.267 | 0.012 | 192.014 |
24 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | 21 | 28.194 | 0.338 | 0.071 | 191.530 |
25 | 13 | Ty Dillon | Chevrolet | 27 | 28.241 | 0.385 | 0.047 | 191.211 |
26 | 43 | Darrell Wallace Jr. | Chevrolet | 33 | 28.254 | 0.398 | 0.013 | 191.123 |
27 | 31 | Ryan Newman | Chevrolet | 29 | 28.255 | 0.399 | 0.001 | 191.117 |
28 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Ford | 23 | 28.431 | 0.575 | 0.176 | 189.934 |
29 | 95 | Regan Smith | Chevrolet | 31 | 28.457 | 0.601 | 0.026 | 189.760 |
30 | 38 | David Ragan | Ford | 35 | 28.493 | 0.637 | 0.036 | 189.520 |
31 | 32 | Matt DiBenedetto | Ford | 21 | 28.529 | 0.673 | 0.036 | 189.281 |
32 | 96 | Parker Kligerman | Toyota | 28 | 28.687 | 0.831 | 0.158 | 188.239 |
33 | 15 | Ross Chastain | Chevrolet | 19 | 28.777 | 0.921 | 0.090 | 187.650 |
34 | 7 | Reed Sorenson | Chevrolet | 15 | 28.971 | 1.115 | 0.194 | 186.393 |
35 | 00 | Landon Cassill | Chevrolet | 29 | 29.082 | 1.226 | 0.111 | 185.682 |
36 | 23 | J.J. Yeley | Toyota | 6 | 29.271 | 1.415 | 0.189 | 184.483 |
37 | 72 | Corey Lajoie | Chevrolet | 18 | 29.335 | 1.479 | 0.064 | 184.080 |
38 | 99 | Kyle Weatherman | Chevrolet | 4 | 29.398 | 1.542 | 0.063 | 183.686 |
39 | 97 | David Starr | Toyota | 17 | 29.968 | 2.112 | 0.570 | 180.192 |
40 | 51 | Joey Gase | Ford | 17 | 30.111 | 2.255 | 0.143 | 179.336 |
Take a virtual lap around Texas Motor Speedway with NASCAR Heat 3.
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