Practice report
NASCAR Cup Loudon
Erik Jones tops second Cup practice; Byron and Larson wreck
Erik Jones led the way in Saturday’s first NASCAR Cup practice which saw another two drivers wreck and head to backup cars.
Jim Utter
Edited: Jul 20, 2019, 3:49 PM
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Late in the session, Jones posted his session-best average lap speed of 133.427 mph, topping the pole-winner for Sunday’s Foxwoods Casino 301, Brad Keselowski (133.394 mph).
Jones, who will start fourth Sunday, has made three starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, with a best finish of sixth in 2017.
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Aric Almirola ended up third (133.366 mph), Kyle Busch was fourth and Ryan Blaney completed the top-five.
Rounding out the top-10 were Joey Logano, Daniel Hemric, Chase Elliott, Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin.
Jones also had the fastest average lap speed among all drivers who ran at least 10 consecutive laps (132.854 mph). Blaney and Kyle Busch were second and third, respectively, in that category.
Within the first 10 minutes of practice, William Byron slammed into the Turn 1 wall, doing extensive damage to his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
Byron’s team immediately began working on his backup car, which means he will have to start Sunday’s race from the rear of the field. He had qualified 22nd on Friday.
“We have just been really loose and I tried to drive through it and see if it would come to me better and it didn't. It was even looser yet, and that was kind of the story, just got loose," Byron said. "Hopefully tomorrow we can have a good, solid day and go from there.”
Shortly after practice restarted, Kyle Larson tagged the wall in Turns 1 and 2 and he, too, will move to a backup car. Larson will become the fifth driver that will have to start Sunday’s race from the rear of the field.
“As soon as I touched the brakes, it got loose,” Larson said over his team radio.
Also starting from the back will be Hamlin, Ryan Newman and Alex Bowman (all for backup cars).
Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Mph 1 20 
Erik Jones Toyota 40 28.546 133.427 2 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 37 28.553 0.007 0.007 133.394 3 10 Aric Almirola Ford 38 28.559 0.013 0.006 133.366 4 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 37 28.586 0.040 0.027 133.240 5 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 54 28.608 0.062 0.022 133.138 6 22 Joey Logano Ford 37 28.624 0.078 0.016 133.063 7 8 Daniel Hemric Chevrolet 39 28.628 0.082 0.004 133.045 8 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 40 28.636 0.090 0.008 133.007 9 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 44 28.641 0.095 0.005 132.984 10 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 39 28.657 0.111 0.016 132.910 11 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 40 28.663 0.117 0.006 132.882 12 19 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 31 28.671 0.125 0.008 132.845 13 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 35 28.679 0.133 0.008 132.808 14 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 25 28.682 0.136 0.003 132.794 15 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 38 28.692 0.146 0.010 132.748 16 95 Matt DiBenedetto Toyota 50 28.719 0.173 0.027 132.623 17 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 39 28.737 0.191 0.018 132.540 18 21 Paul Menard Ford 37 28.784 0.238 0.047 132.324 19 6 Ryan Newman Ford 33 28.787 0.241 0.003 132.310 20 41 
Daniel Suarez Ford 45 28.828 0.282 0.041 132.122 21 1 Kurt Busch Chevrolet 34 28.836 0.290 0.008 132.085 22 88 Alex Bowman Chevrolet 33 28.903 0.357 0.067 131.779 23 32 Corey Lajoie Ford 20 28.909 0.363 0.006 131.751 24 47 Ryan Preece Chevrolet 49 28.912 0.366 0.003 131.738 25 36 Matt Tifft Ford 33 28.976 0.430 0.064 131.447 26 43 Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 48 28.985 0.439 0.009 131.406 27 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 31 29.003 0.457 0.018 131.324 28 34 Michael McDowell Ford 25 29.042 0.496 0.039 131.148 29 24 William Byron Chevrolet 7 29.073 0.527 0.031 131.008 30 38 David Ragan Ford 32 29.251 0.705 0.178 130.211 31 15 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 23 29.317 0.771 0.066 129.918 32 00 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 30 29.350 0.804 0.033 129.772 33 27 Reed Sorenson Chevrolet 16 29.648 1.102 0.298 128.467 34 77 Quin Houff Chevrolet 23 29.754 1.208 0.106 128.010 35 52 Austin Theriault Chevrolet 26 30.088 1.542 0.334 126.589 36 51 Andy Seuss Ford 38 30.129 1.583 0.041 126.416 37 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 4 55.260 26.714 25.131 68.925
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