Alex Bowman tops final Cup practice; Kyle Busch tags wall
Alex Bowman completed a sweep of both NASCAR Cup Series practice sessions Friday at Auto Club Speedway in California.
Ryan Blaney led most of the final 50-minute session but Bowman rocketed to the top of the speed chart in the final 15 minutes with an average lap speed of 176.626 mph.
Blaney ended up second (176.185 mph) and Bubba Wallace was third (176.176 mph). Kurt Busch and Christopher Bell completed the top-five.
Rounding out the top-10 single-lap speeds were Clint Bowyer, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson, Matt DiBenedetto and Kyle Busch.
About 16 minutes into the session, Kyle Busch tagged the Turn 3 wall and did some right-side damage to his No. 18 Toyota.
Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing team quickly went to work on making repairs and he was able to return to the track with about 15 minutes remaining.
Bowman also had the fastest average speed (175.278 mph) among the drivers who ran at least 10 consecutive laps. Kurt Busch and Cole Custer were second and third, respectively, in that category.
Chase Elliott sat out the final 15 minutes of practice for failing inspection twice last weekend; Michael McDowell and J.J. Yeley both sat out the final 15 minutes for being late to inspection. Garrett Smithley missed the last 30 minutes of practice for failing inspection three times.
| Cla | # | Driver | Manufacturer | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 88 |  Alex Bowman | Chevrolet | 32 | 40.764 | 176.626 | |||
| 2 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Ford | 41 | 40.866 | 0.102 | 0.102 | 176.186 | |
| 3 | 43 | Darrell Wallace Jr. | Chevrolet | 22 | 40.868 | 0.104 | 0.002 | 176.177 | |
| 4 | 1 | Kurt Busch | Chevrolet | 47 | 40.952 | 0.188 | 0.084 | 175.816 | |
| 5 | 95 | Christopher Bell | Toyota | 30 | 40.980 | 0.216 | 0.028 | 175.695 | |
| 6 | 14 | Clint Bowyer | Ford | 25 | 40.984 | 0.220 | 0.004 | 175.678 | |
| 7 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Ford | 44 | 41.005 | 0.241 | 0.021 | 175.588 | |
| 8 | 42 | Kyle Larson | Chevrolet | 39 | 41.043 | 0.279 | 0.038 | 175.426 | |
| 9 | 21 | Matt DiBenedetto | Ford | 37 | 41.050 | 0.286 | 0.007 | 175.396 | |
| 10 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 37 | 41.066 | 0.302 | 0.016 | 175.328 | |
| 11 | 6 | Ross Chastain | Ford | 32 | 41.067 | 0.303 | 0.001 | 175.323 | |
| 12 | 17 | Chris Buescher | Ford | 29 | 41.071 | 0.307 | 0.004 | 175.306 | |
| 13 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Ford | 30 | 41.072 | 0.308 | 0.001 | 175.302 | |
| 14 | 8 | Tyler Reddick | Chevrolet | 34 | 41.102 | 0.338 | 0.030 | 175.174 | |
| 15 | 24 | William Byron | Chevrolet | 26 | 41.110 | 0.346 | 0.008 | 175.140 | |
| 16 | 22 | Joey Logano | Ford | 37 | 41.112 | 0.348 | 0.002 | 175.131 | |
| 17 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Chevrolet | 28 | 41.124 | 0.360 | 0.012 | 175.080 | |
| 18 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Ford | 35 | 41.181 | 0.417 | 0.057 | 174.838 | |
| 19 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | 39 | 41.196 | 0.432 | 0.015 | 174.774 | |
| 20 | 41 | Cole Custer | Ford | 40 | 41.230 | 0.466 | 0.034 | 174.630 | |
| 21 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | 33 | 41.249 | 0.485 | 0.019 | 174.550 | |
| 22 | 20 | Erik Jones | Toyota | 35 | 41.252 | 0.488 | 0.003 | 174.537 | |
| 23 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Chevrolet | 23 | 41.281 | 0.517 | 0.029 | 174.414 | |
| 24 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Ford | 26 | 41.281 | 0.517 | 0.000 | 174.414 | |
| 25 | 37 | Ryan Preece | Chevrolet | 29 | 41.347 | 0.583 | 0.066 | 174.136 | |
| 26 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 39 | 41.376 | 0.612 | 0.029 | 174.014 | |
| 27 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | 40 | 41.402 | 0.638 | 0.026 | 173.905 | |
| 28 | 13 | Ty Dillon | Chevrolet | 32 | 41.424 | 0.660 | 0.022 | 173.812 | |
| 29 | 32 | Corey Lajoie | Ford | 25 | 41.647 | 0.883 | 0.223 | 172.882 | |
| 30 | 38 | John Hunter Nemechek | Ford | 28 | 41.661 | 0.897 | 0.014 | 172.824 | |
| 31 | 96 |  Daniel Suarez | Toyota | 26 | 42.142 | 1.378 | 0.481 | 170.851 | |
| 32 | 52 | J.J. Yeley | Ford | 12 | 42.579 | 1.815 | 0.437 | 169.097 | |
| 33 | 00 | Quin Houff | Chevrolet | 16 | 43.255 | 2.491 | 0.676 | 166.455 |
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