Practice report
NASCAR Cup Darlington
Defending winner Denny Hamlin fastest in first Darlington practice
Last year’s Southern 500 winner at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, Denny Hamlin, led the way in Friday’s first practice session.
Jim Utter
Edited: Sep 6, 2018, 8:47 AM
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Hamlin, who has yet to win in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series this season, posted an average lap speed of 172.287 mph.
Late in the session, Kyle Larson bolted to the No. 2 spot, with an average lap speed of 172.034 mph – the only other drive to cross the 172 mph mark. Brad Keselowski was third (171.998 mph).
Alex Bowman was fourth and Ryan Newman completed the top-five.
Rounding out the Top 10 were Erik Jones, Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Blaney, Aric Almirola and Paul Menard.
Just six minutes into the session, the engine on Jamie McMurray’s No. 1 Chevrolet let go as smoke poured from his car and fluid dropped on the track. Because he will change engines, McMurray will have to start Sunday night’s race from the rear of the field.
“The motor blew up and that was it,” McMurray said. “It was shaking violently. There were four or five gallons of oil sitting on the race track.”
It was nearly 15 minutes before the track could return to green following the cleanup from McMurray’s incident.
With about 12 minutes remaining in the session, Jones spun out while attempting to return to pit road. He did not hit anything and was able to continue on.
Five teams were penalized practice time for violations at the most recent race weekend, at Bristol.
David Ragan, Timmy Hill and Derrike Cope all had to sit out the final 15 minutes of practice for being late to pre-race inspection. Kyle Busch had to miss the final 15 minutes of practice for failing pre-race inspection at Bristol twice. Austin Dillon sat out the final 30 minutes for failing pre-race inspection three times at Bristol.
Cla # Driver 4506 Laps Time Gap Interval Mph 1 11 
Denny Hamlin Toyota 18 28.543 172.287 2 42 
Kyle Larson Chevrolet 11 28.585 0.042 0.042 172.034 3 2 
Brad Keselowski Ford 21 28.591 0.048 0.006 171.998 4 88 
Alex Bowman Chevrolet 23 28.594 0.051 0.003 171.980 5 31 
Ryan Newman Chevrolet 28 28.603 0.060 0.009 171.926 6 20 
Erik Jones Toyota 26 28.611 0.068 0.008 171.878 7 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 21 28.633 0.090 0.022 171.746 8 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 23 28.640 0.097 0.007 171.704 9 10 Aric Almirola Ford 21 28.666 0.123 0.026 171.548 10 21 Paul Menard Ford 22 28.720 0.177 0.054 171.226 11 95 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 23 28.751 0.208 0.031 171.041 12 24 William Byron Chevrolet 23 28.795 0.252 0.044 170.780 13 19 
Daniel Suarez Toyota 17 28.817 0.274 0.022 170.649 14 43 Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 17 28.849 0.306 0.032 170.460 15 78 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 16 28.853 0.310 0.004 170.436 16 22 Joey Logano Ford 24 28.881 0.338 0.028 170.271 17 41 Kurt Busch Ford 18 28.897 0.354 0.016 170.177 18 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 19 28.919 0.376 0.022 170.047 19 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 24 28.943 0.400 0.024 169.906 20 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 23 28.950 0.407 0.007 169.865 21 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 22 28.977 0.434 0.027 169.707 22 6 Matt Kenseth Ford 17 29.033 0.490 0.056 169.380 23 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 22 29.043 0.500 0.010 169.321 24 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 20 29.044 0.501 0.001 169.316 25 34 
Michael McDowell Ford 17 29.101 0.558 0.057 168.984 26 32 Matt DiBenedetto Ford 24 29.166 0.623 0.065 168.607 27 38 David Ragan Ford 22 29.167 0.624 0.001 168.602 28 47 A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 20 29.172 0.629 0.005 168.573 29 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 15 29.333 0.790 0.161 167.647 30 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 12 29.349 0.806 0.016 167.556 31 96 Jeffrey Earnhardt Toyota 21 29.808 1.265 0.459 164.976 32 72 
Corey Lajoie Chevrolet 17 29.846 1.303 0.038 164.766 33 15 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 14 30.055 1.512 0.209 163.620 34 52 J.J. Yeley Chevrolet 1 30.112 1.569 0.057 163.310 35 00 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 15 30.537 1.994 0.425 161.037 36 66 Timmy Hill Toyota 2 30.902 2.359 0.365 159.135 37 23 Joey Gase Toyota 13 31.026 2.483 0.124 158.499 38 51 B.J. McLeod Chevrolet 3 31.083 2.540 0.057 158.209 39 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 1 38.924 10.381 7.841 126.339 40 99 Derrike Cope Chevrolet
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