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Practice report

Clint Bowyer fastest in Friday's Cup practice at Atlanta

New aero package or old, Stewart-Haas Racing appears in good position at Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend.

Clint Bowyer, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford Fusion Haas 30 Years of the VF1

Clint Bowyer, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford Fusion Haas 30 Years of the VF1

Nigel Kinrade / NKP / Motorsport Images

SHR teammates Clint Bowyer and Aric Almirola topped Friday’s only Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice, the first utilizing most elements of NASCAR’s new aero package.

Bowyer’s average lap speed of 180.152 mph just topped Almirola (179.988 mph). Austin Dillon ended up third (179.772 mph).

Kurt Busch was fourth-fastest and Daytona 500 Denny Hamlin ended up fifth.

Rounding out the Top 10 were Martin Truex Jr., Erik Jones, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano and Daniel Suarez.

Virtually the entire session consisted of single-car runs, with teams having little interest in running together in packs.

“Well, everybody’s got their opinion on what we’re going see, but only time will paint that picture,” Bowyer said. “I think it could be drastically different than what we have ever seen. My opinion is, it’s going to be different.

“I don’t know how much different, I don’t know what kind of different, I just know it’s going to be different than what we know as the norm on a mile-and-a-half. Um, will they be drafting? I think. How much drafting? I don’t know.”

Qualifying is scheduled for 5:10 p.m. ET.

Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Mph
1 14 United States Clint Bowyer  Ford 6 30.774     180.152
2 10 United States Aric Almirola  Ford 8 30.802 0.028 0.028 179.988
3 3 United States Austin Dillon  Chevrolet 7 30.839 0.065 0.037 179.772
4 1 United States Kurt Busch  Chevrolet 7 30.902 0.128 0.063 179.406
5 11 United States Denny Hamlin  Toyota 27 30.984 0.210 0.082 178.931
6 19 United States Martin Truex Jr.  Toyota 6 30.992 0.218 0.008 178.885
7 20 United States Erik Jones  Toyota 18 31.007 0.233 0.015 178.798
8 18 United States Kyle Busch  Toyota 7 31.010 0.236 0.003 178.781
9 22 United States Joey Logano  Ford 26 31.019 0.245 0.009 178.729
10 41 Mexico Daniel Suarez  Ford 8 31.019 0.245 0.000 178.729
11 42 United States Kyle Larson  Chevrolet 11 31.023 0.249 0.004 178.706
12 13 United States Ty Dillon  Chevrolet 15 31.079 0.305 0.056 178.384
13 88 United States Alex Bowman  Chevrolet 11 31.084 0.310 0.005 178.355
14 6 United States Ryan Newman  Ford 8 31.096 0.322 0.012 178.287
15 17 United States Ricky Stenhouse Jr.  Ford 6 31.116 0.342 0.020 178.172
16 8 United States Daniel Hemric  Chevrolet 12 31.121 0.347 0.005 178.143
17 21 United States Paul Menard  Ford 18 31.139 0.365 0.018 178.040
18 37 United States Chris Buescher  Chevrolet 19 31.140 0.366 0.001 178.035
19 95 United States Matt DiBenedetto  Toyota 17 31.160 0.386 0.020 177.920
20 34 United States Michael McDowell  Ford 8 31.181 0.407 0.021 177.801
21 48 United States Jimmie Johnson  Chevrolet 11 31.188 0.414 0.007 177.761
22 38 United States David Ragan  Ford 8 31.188 0.414 0.000 177.761
23 9 United States Chase Elliott  Chevrolet 10 31.253 0.479 0.065 177.391
24 47 United States Ryan Preece  Chevrolet 9 31.270 0.496 0.017 177.295
25 2 United States Brad Keselowski  Ford 13 31.292 0.518 0.022 177.170
26 24 United States William Byron  Chevrolet 5 31.294 0.520 0.002 177.159
27 12 United States Ryan Blaney  Ford 13 31.297 0.523 0.003 177.142
28 43 United States Darrell Wallace Jr.  Chevrolet 11 31.371 0.597 0.074 176.724
29 4 United States Kevin Harvick  Ford 2 31.444 0.670 0.073 176.313
30 32 United States Corey Lajoie  Ford 15 31.558 0.784 0.114 175.677
31 36 United States Matt Tifft  Ford 5 31.583 0.809 0.025 175.537
32 96 United States Parker Kligerman  Toyota 22 31.601 0.827 0.018 175.437
33 00 United States Landon Cassill  Chevrolet 5 31.653 0.879 0.052 175.149
34 15 United States Ross Chastain  Chevrolet 1 31.732 0.958 0.079 174.713
35 52 United States B.J. McLeod  Chevrolet 2 32.169 1.395 0.437 172.340
36 51 Cody Ware  Chevrolet 1 34.383 3.609 2.214 161.242
37 77 United States Garrett Smithley  Chevrolet        

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