Practice report
NASCAR Cup Atlanta
Clint Bowyer leads final Cup practice, Kyle Busch wrecks
Clint Bowyer continued to show his No. 14 Ford’s speed in Saturday’s final NASCAR Cup Series practice at Atlanta.
Jim Utter
Edited: Feb 23, 2019, 7:25 PM
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Bowyer, who was fastest in Friday’s practice and was fastest in two of three rounds of qualifying, led the way Saturday with an average lap speed of 179.104 mph.
Kyle Busch ended up second (178.873 mph) and Austin Dillon was third (178.712 mph). Michael McDowell was fourth and Corey LaJoie completed the top-five.
“Just got loose. We were trying to run a run and the car was pretty good with fire off there," Busch said. "We ran some really good times and then just kept getting a little bit looser, a little bit looser. I tried to go back to the bottom and run the bottom to see how slow I had to be to go around the bottom and just snapped.”
Rounding out the Top 10 were Kurt Busch, Joey Logano, Daniel Hemric, Ryan Newman and Martin Truex Jr.
Shortly into the start of Saturday’s session – which got underway with fog and mist in the air – Kyle Busch got loose in Turn 2 and hit the wall. His team immediately began bringing out his backup car and begin preparations.
Since he moved to a backup car, Busch will have to start Sunday’s race from the rear of the field.
With about 42 minutes left in the session, smoke began billowing out of the No. 20 Toyota of Erik Jones and he immediately took his car to the garage, where it was reported he was suffering a power steering problem.
Keselowski, who sat out the start of practice suffering from flu-like symptoms, suited up and got in his No. 2 Ford with about 20 minutes left in the session and ran about two laps on the track.
Kyle Busch had the fastest average speed among the drivers who ran at least 10 consecutive laps (177.302 mph). Kyle Larson and Truex were second and third, respectively, in that category.
Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Mph 1 14 
Clint Bowyer Ford 35 30.954 179.104 2 18 
Kyle Busch Toyota 12 30.994 0.040 0.040 178.873 3 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 52 31.022 0.068 0.028 178.712 4 34 
Michael McDowell Ford 29 31.029 0.075 0.007 178.672 5 32 
Corey Lajoie Ford 32 31.070 0.116 0.041 178.436 6 1 
Kurt Busch Chevrolet 58 31.143 0.189 0.073 178.018 7 22 Joey Logano Ford 52 31.183 0.229 0.040 177.789 8 8 Daniel Hemric Chevrolet 49 31.184 0.230 0.001 177.783 9 6 Ryan Newman Ford 39 31.229 0.275 0.045 177.527 10 19 
Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 54 31.237 0.283 0.008 177.482 11 88 Alex Bowman Chevrolet 55 31.242 0.288 0.005 177.453 12 12 
Ryan Blaney Ford 43 31.242 0.288 0.000 177.453 13 10 Aric Almirola Ford 57 31.248 0.294 0.006 177.419 14 24 William Byron Chevrolet 34 31.264 0.310 0.016 177.329 15 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 49 31.267 0.313 0.003 177.312 16 21 
Paul Menard Ford 55 31.270 0.316 0.003 177.295 17 42 
Kyle Larson Chevrolet 51 31.273 0.319 0.003 177.278 18 95 Matt DiBenedetto Toyota 56 31.317 0.363 0.044 177.028 19 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 43 31.322 0.368 0.005 177.000 20 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 52 31.327 0.373 0.005 176.972 21 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 75 31.334 0.380 0.007 176.932 22 41 
Daniel Suarez Ford 55 31.334 0.380 0.000 176.932 23 96 Parker Kligerman Toyota 38 31.335 0.381 0.001 176.927 24 20 Erik Jones Toyota 20 31.343 0.389 0.008 176.882 25 47 Ryan Preece Chevrolet 62 31.351 0.397 0.008 176.836 26 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 44 31.393 0.439 0.042 176.600 27 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 54 31.416 0.462 0.023 176.471 28 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 36 31.427 0.473 0.011 176.409 29 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 68 31.430 0.476 0.003 176.392 30 38 David Ragan Ford 43 31.465 0.511 0.035 176.196 31 43 Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 35 31.513 0.559 0.048 175.927 32 36 Matt Tifft Ford 15 31.645 0.691 0.132 175.194 33 15 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 23 31.889 0.935 0.244 173.853 34 00 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 35 31.889 0.935 0.000 173.853 35 77 Garrett Smithley Chevrolet 10 32.273 1.319 0.384 171.784 36 52 B.J. McLeod Chevrolet 7 32.293 1.339 0.020 171.678 37 51 Cody Ware Chevrolet 11 33.315 2.361 1.022 166.412
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