Chip Ganassi Racing teammates top first Cup practice at Indy

Late in the 50-minute session, Larson jumped to the top of the leaderboard with an average lap speed of 185.025 mph.

In five series starts at Indy, Larson’s best finish was fifth in 2016.

Busch ended up second (184.763 mph) and former Brickyard 400 winner Brad Keselowski was third (184.600 mph). Chase Elliott and Bubba Wallace completed the top-five.

Rounding out the top-10 speeds were Clint Bowyer, Alex Bowman, Ryan Blaney, Jimmie Johnson and William Byron.

Johnson is trying to keep his streak alive of participating in every NASCAR playoff since the format was adapted in the 2004 season. He trails the 16th-place cutoff line by 18 points with only Sunday’s Brickyard 400 remaining in the regular season.

About 11 minutes into the session, a caution was displayed for a piece of debris located in Turn 2. The session returned to green several minutes later. 

Matt DiBenedetto had to sit out the final 15 minutes of the practice session as part of a penalty for twice failing pre-race inspection last weekend at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.

Cla	#	Driver		Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	42	Kyle Larson		Chevrolet	14	48.642			185.025
2	1	Kurt Busch		Chevrolet	12	48.711	0.069	0.069	184.763
3	2	Brad Keselowski		Ford	16	48.754	0.112	0.043	184.600
4	9	Chase Elliott		Chevrolet	22	48.832	0.190	0.078	184.305
5	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.		Chevrolet	13	48.997	0.355	0.165	183.685
6	14	Clint Bowyer		Ford	15	49.092	0.450	0.095	183.329
7	88	Alex Bowman		Chevrolet	19	49.147	0.505	0.055	183.124
8	12	Ryan Blaney		Ford	12	49.174	0.532	0.027	183.024
9	48	Jimmie Johnson		Chevrolet	10	49.261	0.619	0.087	182.700
10	24	William Byron		Chevrolet	22	49.285	0.643	0.024	182.611
11	11	Denny Hamlin		Toyota	17	49.288	0.646	0.003	182.600
12	18	Kyle Busch		Toyota	11	49.312	0.670	0.024	182.511
13	20	Erik Jones		Toyota	20	49.389	0.747	0.077	182.227
14	22	Joey Logano		Ford	17	49.402	0.760	0.013	182.179
15	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		Ford	13	49.464	0.822	0.062	181.951
16	4	Kevin Harvick		Ford	16	49.481	0.839	0.017	181.888
17	8	Daniel Hemric		Chevrolet	17	49.608	0.966	0.127	181.422
18	10	Aric Almirola		Ford	10	49.661	1.019	0.053	181.229
19	95	Matt DiBenedetto		Toyota	13	49.719	1.077	0.058	181.017
20	19	Martin Truex Jr.		Toyota	17	49.781	1.139	0.062	180.792
21	37	Chris Buescher		Chevrolet	13	49.837	1.195	0.056	180.589
22	41	Daniel Suarez		Ford	13	49.854	1.212	0.017	180.527
23	21	Paul Menard		Ford	13	49.869	1.227	0.015	180.473
24	13	Ty Dillon		Chevrolet	18	49.871	1.229	0.002	180.466
25	3	Austin Dillon		Chevrolet	14	49.899	1.257	0.028	180.364
26	34	Michael McDowell		Ford	9	50.221	1.579	0.322	179.208
27	6	Ryan Newman		Ford	8	50.243	1.601	0.022	179.129
28	36	Matt Tifft		Ford	10	50.298	1.656	0.055	178.934
29	38	David Ragan		Ford	14	50.313	1.671	0.015	178.880
30	32	Corey Lajoie		Ford	15	50.679	2.037	0.366	177.588
31	47	Ryan Preece		Chevrolet	14	50.684	2.042	0.005	177.571
32	00	Landon Cassill		Chevrolet	15	51.143	2.501	0.459	175.977
33	96	Parker Kligerman		Toyota	10	51.249	2.607	0.106	175.613
34	51	B.J. McLeod		Ford	3	51.403	2.761	0.154	175.087
35	77	Reed Sorenson		Chevrolet	9	51.565	2.923	0.162	174.537
36	54	J.J. Yeley		Chevrolet	2	52.004	3.362	0.439	173.064
37	15	Ross Chastain		Chevrolet	2	52.058	3.416	0.054	172.884
38	27	Ryan Sieg		Chevrolet	3	52.309	3.667	0.251	172.055
39	52	Garrett Smithley		Ford	2	52.385	3.743	0.076	171.805
40	53	Josh Bilicki		Ford	7	52.757	4.115	0.372	170.593