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