Brad Keselowski leads wave of Fords in final Cup practice

Brad Keselowski led the way in final practice Saturday at Auto Club Speedway as seven Fords ended up in the Top 10 of single-car speeds.

That’s a far cry from Friday’s practice, in which only one Ford managed to show in the Top-10

Keselowski’s session-best average lap speed of 176.648 mph came late in the session while he was drafting. Daniel Hemric (176.548 mph) was second and Daniel Suarez (176.293 mph) was third.

Aric Almirola and Ryan Blaney completed the top-five.

Rounding out the Top 10 was Joey Logano, Ryan Newman, Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Dillon’s top speed also came late in the session.

Newman had to sit out the final 15 minutes of the practice session as part of his penalty for twice failing pre-qualifying inspection on Friday.

“We got quite a bit too tight on the last run. We’ve been on both sides of the fence so we’ve got to decide where we want the balance of our car to be,” said Kevin Harvick, who ended up 17th-fastest.

Hemric had the fastest average lap speed (174.940 mph) among the drivers who ran at least 10 consecutive laps. He was followed by Blaney, Keselowski, Bowman and Erik Jones in that category.

Cla	#	Driver		Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	2	Brad Keselowski		Ford	47	40.759			176.648
2	8	Daniel Hemric		Chevrolet	38	40.782	0.023	0.023	176.548
3	41	Daniel Suarez		Ford	48	40.841	0.082	0.059	176.293
4	10	Aric Almirola		Ford	43	40.870	0.111	0.029	176.168
5	12	Ryan Blaney		Ford	43	40.879	0.120	0.009	176.130
6	22	Joey Logano		Ford	47	40.890	0.131	0.011	176.082
7	6	Ryan Newman		Ford	20	40.897	0.138	0.007	176.052
8	88	Alex Bowman		Chevrolet	40	40.923	0.164	0.026	175.940
9	3	Austin Dillon		Chevrolet	36	40.923	0.164	0.000	175.940
10	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		Ford	31	40.931	0.172	0.008	175.906
11	18	Kyle Busch		Toyota	40	40.951	0.192	0.020	175.820
12	20	Erik Jones		Toyota	39	40.979	0.220	0.028	175.700
13	1	Kurt Busch		Chevrolet	42	40.990	0.231	0.011	175.653
14	11	Denny Hamlin		Toyota	45	40.997	0.238	0.007	175.623
15	24	William Byron		Chevrolet	38	41.006	0.247	0.009	175.584
16	42	Kyle Larson		Chevrolet	35	41.011	0.252	0.005	175.563
17	4	Kevin Harvick		Ford	42	41.030	0.271	0.019	175.481
18	48	Jimmie Johnson		Chevrolet	52	41.041	0.282	0.011	175.434
19	19	Martin Truex Jr.		Toyota	39	41.069	0.310	0.028	175.315
20	14	Clint Bowyer		Ford	37	41.113	0.354	0.044	175.127
21	37	Chris Buescher		Chevrolet	31	41.136	0.377	0.023	175.029
22	9	Chase Elliott		Chevrolet	45	41.150	0.391	0.014	174.970
23	95	Matt DiBenedetto		Toyota	32	41.187	0.428	0.037	174.812
24	34	Michael McDowell		Ford	25	41.189	0.430	0.002	174.804
25	32	Corey Lajoie		Ford	19	41.190	0.431	0.001	174.800
26	47	Ryan Preece		Chevrolet	19	41.241	0.482	0.051	174.584
27	21	Paul Menard		Ford	34	41.258	0.499	0.017	174.512
28	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.		Chevrolet	31	41.304	0.545	0.046	174.317
29	13	Ty Dillon		Chevrolet	20	41.322	0.563	0.018	174.241
30	38	David Ragan		Ford	22	41.366	0.607	0.044	174.056
31	36	Matt Tifft		Ford	18	41.683	0.924	0.317	172.732
32	00	Landon Cassill		Chevrolet	16	41.827	1.068	0.144	172.138
33	15	Ross Chastain		Chevrolet	18	42.215	1.456	0.388	170.555
34	52	B.J. McLeod		Ford	4	43.852	3.093	1.637	164.189
35	27	Reed Sorenson		Chevrolet	7	43.900	3.141	0.048	164.009
36	66	Joey Gase		Toyota	6	45.414	4.655	1.514	158.541