Clint Bowyer tops Friday's first Cup practice at Texas

Bowyer’s average lap speed of 188.679 mph was set about two-thirds of the way through the 50-minute session and held up until the end.

In 27 career starts at Texas, Bowyer has never won but has four top-five and 12 top-10 finishes, including his runner-up effort in March to eventual winner Denny Hamlin.

Kurt Busch ended up second (188.324 mph) and Hamlin was third (187.500 mph) and fastest of the remaining playoff drivers.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was fourth and Erik Jones rounded out the top-five.

Rounding out the top-10 speeds were Aric Almirola, Alex Bowman, Martin Truex Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick.

Both Ryan Blaney and J.J. Yeley had to sit out the final 15 minutes of practice for being late out of the garage for qualifying last weekend at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

Cla	#	Driver		Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	14	Clint Bowyer		Ford	35	28.620			188.679
2	1	Kurt Busch		Chevrolet	26	28.636	00.016	00.016	188.574
3	11	Denny Hamlin		Toyota	26	28.674	00.054	00.038	188.324
4	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		Ford	24	28.790	00.170	00.116	187.565
5	20	Erik Jones		Toyota	22	28.791	00.171	00.001	187.559
6	10	Aric Almirola		Ford	37	28.801	00.181	00.010	187.493
7	88	Alex Bowman		Chevrolet	38	28.808	00.188	00.007	187.448
8	19	Martin Truex Jr.		Toyota	17	28.829	00.209	00.021	187.311
9	48	Jimmie Johnson		Chevrolet	29	28.831	00.211	00.002	187.298
10	4	Kevin Harvick		Ford	31	28.873	00.253	00.042	187.026
11	24	William Byron		Chevrolet	38	28.889	00.269	00.016	186.922
12	18	Kyle Busch		Toyota	28	28.890	00.270	00.001	186.916
13	42	Kyle Larson		Chevrolet	39	28.913	00.293	00.023	186.767
14	6	Ryan Newman		Ford	31	28.951	00.331	00.038	186.522
15	22	Joey Logano		Ford	32	28.958	00.338	00.007	186.477
16	37	Chris Buescher		Chevrolet	38	28.963	00.343	00.005	186.445
17	21	Paul Menard		Ford	33	28.970	00.350	00.007	186.400
18	95	Matt DiBenedetto		Toyota	30	28.973	00.353	00.003	186.380
19	41	Daniel Suarez		Ford	29	28.998	00.378	00.025	186.220
20	47	Ryan Preece		Chevrolet	37	29.007	00.387	00.009	186.162
21	13	Ty Dillon		Chevrolet	21	29.029	00.409	00.022	186.021
22	3	Austin Dillon		Chevrolet	29	29.068	00.448	00.039	185.771
23	12	Ryan Blaney		Ford	17	29.085	00.465	00.017	185.663
24	2	Brad Keselowski		Ford	25	29.094	00.474	00.009	185.605
25	8	Daniel Hemric		Chevrolet	31	29.113	00.493	00.019	185.484
26	9	Chase Elliott		Chevrolet	44	29.143	00.523	00.030	185.293
27	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.		Chevrolet	35	29.218	00.598	00.075	184.818
28	34	Michael McDowell		Ford	29	29.259	00.639	00.041	184.559
29	36	John Hunter Nemechek		Ford	24	29.267	00.647	00.008	184.508
30	96	Parker Kligerman		Toyota	37	29.312	00.692	00.045	184.225
31	38	David Ragan		Ford	40	29.383	00.763	00.071	183.780
32	32	Corey Lajoie		Ford	26	29.397	00.777	00.014	183.692
33	27	Ross Chastain		Chevrolet	15	29.642	01.022	00.245	182.174
34	53	J.J. Yeley		Ford	5	29.697	01.077	00.055	181.837
35	00	Landon Cassill		Chevrolet	18	29.809	01.189	00.112	181.153
36	52	Garrett Smithley		Ford	4	29.930	01.310	00.121	180.421
37	77	Quin Houff		Chevrolet	18	29.993	01.373	00.063	180.042
38	51	Josh Bilicki		Chevrolet	10	30.013	01.393	00.020	179.922
39	15	Joe Nemechek		Chevrolet	6	30.308	01.688	00.295	178.171