Practice report

NASCAR Cup Texas

Daniel Suarez fastest in Saturday's first practice session

While the weather cooled off at Texas Motor Speedway, Daniel Suarez heated up on Saturday.

Jim Utter

Edited: Apr 7, 2018, 4:08 PM

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Daniel Suarez, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota Camry STANLEY Children's Miracle Network Hospitals National Champions

Under temperatures in the mid-30s, Suarez went out very late in Saturday’s first practice session and posted an average lap speed of 198.998 mph – the fastest lap recorded so far this weekend.

Kurt Busch’s pole-winning lap during Friday’s abbreviated qualifying session was 197.368 mph.

Suarez, who is set to start 14th on Sunday, said his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team has faced several challenges this season.

“We have had good speed, we just, we’ve been very inconsistent. We’ve been very – struggling a little bit sometimes, not always, but sometimes transferring that speed from practice to the race or from qualifying to practice,” Suarez said Friday at Texas Motor Speedway.

“The speed is there, we just have to be able to transfer that speed to the weekend and that’s something that we have to keep working on and try to keep getting better at. I’m sure we are going to get it.”

In two Cup series starts at Texas, Suarez finished 19th and 14th last season.

Suarez’s JGR teammate, Denny Hamlin, was second-fastest. Rookie William Byron was third, Jimmie Johnson fourth and Kevin Harvick completed the top five.

Rounding out the Top 10 were Erik Jones, Joey Logano, Kyle Larson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ryan Blaney.

With less than 13½ minutes left in the session, Stenhouse came off Turn 4 and slammed into the outside wall, doing extensive damage to his No. 17 Roush Fenway Ford. He had just recorded the ninth-fastest speed in the session.

It was the second consecutive race Stenhouse had wrecked his primary car in a practice session. He had the same happen two weeks ago at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

The team immediately moved to bring out Stenhouse’s No. 17 backup car, which will require him to start Sunday’s O’Reilly 500 from the rear of the field. He was set to start 26th.

Cla#DriverManufacturerLapsTimeGapIntervalMph 1 19 mexico Daniel Suarez Toyota 21 27.136 198.998 2 11 united_states Denny Hamlin Toyota 5 27.163 0.027 0.027 198.800 3 24 William Byron Chevrolet 26 27.171 0.035 0.008 198.741 4 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 12 27.185 0.049 0.014 198.639 5 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 8 27.248 0.112 0.063 198.180 6 20 Erik Jones Toyota 22 27.250 0.114 0.002 198.165 7 22 united_states Joey Logano Ford 26 27.266 0.130 0.016 198.049 8 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 23 27.269 0.133 0.003 198.027 9 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 15 27.288 0.152 0.019 197.889 10 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 18 27.298 0.162 0.010 197.817 11 78 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 15 27.344 0.208 0.046 197.484 12 41 united_states Kurt Busch Ford 23 27.354 0.218 0.010 197.412 13 88 Alex Bowman Chevrolet 22 27.379 0.243 0.025 197.231 14 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 13 27.387 0.251 0.008 197.174 15 6 Trevor Bayne Ford 22 27.399 0.263 0.012 197.087 16 43 Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 13 27.411 0.275 0.012 197.001 17 31 united_states Ryan Newman Chevrolet 36 27.414 0.278 0.003 196.980 18 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 10 27.414 0.278 0.000 196.980 19 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 28 27.426 0.290 0.012 196.893 20 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 23 27.442 0.306 0.016 196.779 21 10 Aric Almirola Ford 19 27.469 0.333 0.027 196.585 22 14 united_states Clint Bowyer Ford 6 27.479 0.343 0.010 196.514 23 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 24 27.497 0.361 0.018 196.385 24 95 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 31 27.506 0.370 0.009 196.321 25 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 18 27.544 0.408 0.038 196.050 26 21 Paul Menard Ford 23 27.548 0.412 0.004 196.021 27 47 united_states A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 25 27.590 0.454 0.042 195.723 28 38 David Ragan Ford 24 27.634 0.498 0.044 195.411 29 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 15 27.703 0.567 0.069 194.925 30 34 Michael McDowell Ford 34 28.043 0.907 0.340 192.561 31 32 Matt DiBenedetto Ford 28 28.176 1.040 0.133 191.652 32 72 united_states Cole Whitt Chevrolet 19 28.361 1.225 0.185 190.402 33 51 Harrison Rhodes Chevrolet 16 28.550 1.414 0.189 189.142 34 00 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 17 28.702 1.566 0.152 188.140

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