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Austin Dillon leads the way in final Cup practice at Las Vegas

Austin Dillon ended NASCAR Cup Series practice on Saturday the way they began it on Friday – atop the leaderboard.

Austin Dillon, Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet Dow SILASTIC Silicone Elastomers

Austin Dillon, Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet Dow SILASTIC Silicone Elastomers

Russell LaBounty / NKP / Motorsport Images

Dillon, who was fastest in Friday’s practice at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, led the way in Saturday’s final session as well, with an average lap speed of 178.224 mph.

“Last week, we had one car running really good and our car did it and that was just trying to maximize that first race to see which direction we needed to go with our cars. And, I felt like we found that with (Daniel Hemric),” Dillon said.

“We had a good game plan coming here to Vegas and we stuck with it. The biggest thing is game planning and I’ve been really hard on the radio the last two weeks because I feel like the potential is there for us to get one of these races early.

“So, the stress level is a little bit high because we’ve got the speed and executing with that sometimes can raise the stress level. I’m just trying to really harp on our guys as best we can and create less margin of error when we get out there just so everything is known.”

Dillon’s Richard Childress Racing, Hemric, ended up second-fastest (177.072 mph), just as he did on Friday. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was third (176.927 mph). Aric Almirola and last weekend’s race winner, Brad Keselowski, completed the top-five.

Rounding out the Top 10 were Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Daniel Suarez, Kyle Busch and Erik Jones.

Kevin Harvick, who will start on the pole Sunday, ended up 29th fastest.

Hemric had the fastest average speed among all drivers that ran at least 10 consecutive laps (176.181 mph). Austin Dillon and Keselowski were second and third, respectively, in that category.

Read Also:

Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Mph
1 3 United States Austin Dillon  Chevrolet 49 30.299     178.224
2 8 United States Daniel Hemric  Chevrolet 46 30.496 0.197 0.197 177.072
3 17 United States Ricky Stenhouse Jr.  Ford 61 30.521 0.222 0.025 176.927
4 10 United States Aric Almirola  Ford 46 30.525 0.226 0.004 176.904
5 2 United States Brad Keselowski  Ford 48 30.533 0.234 0.008 176.858
6 6 United States Ryan Newman  Ford 26 30.545 0.246 0.012 176.788
7 1 United States Kurt Busch  Chevrolet 53 30.569 0.270 0.024 176.650
8 41 Mexico Daniel Suarez  Ford 47 30.573 0.274 0.004 176.626
9 18 United States Kyle Busch  Toyota 46 30.582 0.283 0.009 176.574
10 20 United States Erik Jones  Toyota 44 30.617 0.318 0.035 176.373
11 12 United States Ryan Blaney  Ford 44 30.625 0.326 0.008 176.327
12 88 United States Alex Bowman  Chevrolet 35 30.639 0.340 0.014 176.246
13 9 United States Chase Elliott  Chevrolet 39 30.656 0.357 0.017 176.148
14 22 United States Joey Logano  Ford 47 30.667 0.368 0.011 176.085
15 48 United States Jimmie Johnson  Chevrolet 59 30.679 0.380 0.012 176.016
16 42 United States Kyle Larson  Chevrolet 45 30.680 0.381 0.001 176.010
17 24 United States William Byron  Chevrolet 38 30.686 0.387 0.006 175.976
18 11 United States Denny Hamlin  Toyota 46 30.687 0.388 0.001 175.970
19 21 United States Paul Menard  Ford 27 30.729 0.430 0.042 175.730
20 37 United States Chris Buescher  Chevrolet 44 30.737 0.438 0.008 175.684
21 43 United States Darrell Wallace Jr.  Chevrolet 34 30.759 0.460 0.022 175.558
22 47 United States Ryan Preece  Chevrolet 50 30.761 0.462 0.002 175.547
23 34 United States Michael McDowell  Ford 32 30.783 0.484 0.022 175.421
24 32 United States Corey Lajoie  Ford 25 30.787 0.488 0.004 175.399
25 95 United States Matt DiBenedetto  Toyota 46 30.789 0.490 0.002 175.387
26 14 United States Clint Bowyer  Ford 27 30.799 0.500 0.010 175.330
27 38 United States David Ragan  Ford 29 30.800 0.501 0.001 175.325
28 13 United States Ty Dillon  Chevrolet 24 30.817 0.518 0.017 175.228
29 4 United States Kevin Harvick  Ford 35 30.832 0.533 0.015 175.143
30 19 United States Martin Truex Jr.  Toyota 34 30.865 0.566 0.033 174.955
31 96 United States Parker Kligerman  Toyota 38 30.876 0.577 0.011 174.893
32 36 United States Matt Tifft  Ford 24 30.909 0.610 0.033 174.706
33 15 United States Ross Chastain  Chevrolet 22 31.025 0.726 0.116 174.053
34 00 United States Landon Cassill  Chevrolet 24 31.174 0.875 0.149 173.221
35 51 Cody Ware  Chevrolet 12 31.209 0.910 0.035 173.027
36 77 United States Reed Sorenson  Chevrolet 15 31.550 1.251 0.341 171.157
37 52 United States B.J. McLeod  Chevrolet 7 32.245 1.946 0.695 167.468
38 66 United States Joey Gase  Toyota 17 32.317 2.018 0.072 167.095

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Edition

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