Keselowski leads first Cup practice at Kansas

Keselowski, who won this race in the spring, made a mock qualifying run late in the 55-minute session and his average lap speed of 176.499 mph ended up fastest.

Fellow Ford drivers Aric Almirola (176.390 mph) and Daniel Suarez (176.332 mph) ended up second and third, respectively. Denny Hamlin and last weekend’s race winner, Ryan Blaney, completed the top-five.

“Anytime you come back to a track you won at it gives you a lot of confidence. We won this race in the spring and won Martinsville in the spring as well and they are back-to-back races,” Keselowski said Friday. 

“We are coming into these two races feeling pretty good.”

In 19 career starts at Kansas, Keselowski has two wins, four top-five and 10 top-10 finishes and has won one pole.

Rounding out the top-10 single-lap speeds were Kurt Busch, Paul Menard, Austin Dillon, Kevin Harvick and Daniel Hemric.

Cla	#	Driver		Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	2	Brad Keselowski		Ford	27	30.595			176.499
2	10	Aric Almirola		Ford	26	30.614	00.019	00.019	176.390
3	41	Daniel Suarez		Ford	29	30.624	00.029	00.010	176.332
4	11	Denny Hamlin		Toyota	25	30.682	00.087	00.058	175.999
5	12	Ryan Blaney		Ford	18	30.778	00.183	00.096	175.450
6	1	Kurt Busch		Chevrolet	26	30.792	00.197	00.014	175.370
7	21	Paul Menard		Ford	26	30.803	00.208	00.011	175.308
8	3	Austin Dillon		Chevrolet	29	30.857	00.262	00.054	175.001
9	4	Kevin Harvick		Ford	28	30.876	00.281	00.019	174.893
10	8	Daniel Hemric		Chevrolet	28	30.888	00.293	00.012	174.825
11	42	Kyle Larson		Chevrolet	39	30.902	00.307	00.014	174.746
12	20	Erik Jones		Toyota	29	30.904	00.309	00.002	174.735
13	22	Joey Logano		Ford	31	30.915	00.320	00.011	174.672
14	6	Ryan Newman		Ford	23	30.954	00.359	00.039	174.452
15	14	Clint Bowyer		Ford	31	30.961	00.366	00.007	174.413
16	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		Ford	26	30.975	00.380	00.014	174.334
17	37	Chris Buescher		Chevrolet	17	30.979	00.384	00.004	174.312
18	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.		Chevrolet	19	30.992	00.397	00.013	174.239
19	13	Ty Dillon		Chevrolet	26	30.997	00.402	00.005	174.210
20	24	William Byron		Chevrolet	37	31.000	00.405	00.003	174.194
21	88	Alex Bowman		Chevrolet	38	31.021	00.426	00.021	174.076
22	18	Kyle Busch		Toyota	24	31.024	00.429	00.003	174.059
23	9	Chase Elliott		Chevrolet	26	31.075	00.480	00.051	173.773
24	48	Jimmie Johnson		Chevrolet	55	31.085	00.490	00.010	173.717
25	19	Martin Truex Jr.		Toyota	14	31.098	00.503	00.013	173.645
26	34	Michael McDowell		Ford	18	31.126	00.531	00.028	173.488
27	36	Matt Tifft		Ford	15	31.165	00.570	00.039	173.271
28	38	David Ragan		Ford	20	31.303	00.708	00.138	172.507
29	95	Matt DiBenedetto		Toyota	30	31.342	00.747	00.039	172.293
30	00	Landon Cassill		Chevrolet	26	31.377	00.782	00.035	172.101
31	32	Corey Lajoie		Ford	17	31.448	00.853	00.071	171.712
32	47	Ryan Preece		Chevrolet	17	31.453	00.858	00.005	171.685
33	51	J.J. Yeley		Ford	16	31.512	00.917	00.059	171.363
34	15	Ross Chastain		Chevrolet	18	31.711	01.116	00.199	170.288
35	27	Reed Sorenson		Chevrolet	19	31.955	01.360	00.244	168.988
36	96	Parker Kligerman		Toyota	20	31.975	01.380	00.020	168.882
37	52	Garrett Smithley		Ford	13	32.216	01.621	00.241	167.619
38	53	Josh Bilicki		Ford	7	33.035	02.440	00.819	163.463
39	77	Timmy Hill		Chevrolet	13	33.036	02.441	00.001	163.458
40	66	Joey Gase		Toyota	14	33.209	02.614	00.173	162.607