Practice report
NASCAR Cup Fontana
Kevin Harvick fastest in Saturday's first Cup practice at Fontana
Kevin Harvick set the pace early and led Saturday’s first NASCAR Cup Series practice session at Auto Club Speedway.
Jim Utter
Published: Mar 16, 2019, 5:09 PM
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Harvick’s average lap speed of 175.867 mph topped the leaderboard and he set the mark very early in the 50-minute session.
Kyle Busch was second fastest (175.773 mph) and Brad Keselowski was third (175.644 mph). Martin Truex Jr. and Daniel Hemric completed the top-five.
“Auto Club Speedway is by far one of my favorite tracks we go to. It’s top three on my list as far as tracks that I’m excited to go to, just for the fact that the asphalt is so worn out,” Harvick said.
“It is very similar to Atlanta in a much different shape of a race track. It’s a very unique race track because it is so wide and you have so many options to run all over the race track. When you add in the tire falloff, then it becomes strategy.
“There are so many things that come into play, but it has become a great race and a great race track to race on.”
Harvick has one career win at Auto Club, coming in 2011. In his last two starts at the track, he’s finished no better than 13th and wrecked early in last year’s event.
Rounding out the Top 10 speeds in practice were Joey Logano, Aric Almirola, Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon and Chris Buescher.
With about nine minutes left in the session, Kyle Larson appeared to tag the wall in Turn 4 while racing around Denny Hamlin but the damage did not appear to be extensive.
Keselowski had the fastest average lap speed of all the drivers who ran at least 10 consecutive laps.
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Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Mph 1 4 
Kevin Harvick Ford 22 40.940 175.867 2 18 
Kyle Busch Toyota 37 40.962 0.022 0.022 175.773 3 2 
Brad Keselowski Ford 34 40.992 0.052 0.030 175.644 4 19 
Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 16 41.014 0.074 0.022 175.550 5 8 Daniel Hemric Chevrolet 37 41.047 0.107 0.033 175.409 6 22 Joey Logano Ford 28 41.080 0.140 0.033 175.268 7 10 Aric Almirola Ford 29 41.125 0.185 0.045 175.076 8 88 
Alex Bowman Chevrolet 26 41.131 0.191 0.006 175.050 9 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 23 41.162 0.222 0.031 174.919 10 37 
Chris Buescher Chevrolet 28 41.181 0.241 0.019 174.838 11 1 Kurt Busch Chevrolet 33 41.222 0.282 0.041 174.664 12 24 
William Byron Chevrolet 22 41.235 0.295 0.013 174.609 13 20 
Erik Jones Toyota 28 41.268 0.328 0.033 174.469 14 41 
Daniel Suarez Ford 31 41.283 0.343 0.015 174.406 15 34 Michael McDowell Ford 14 41.294 0.354 0.011 174.359 16 43 Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 29 41.330 0.390 0.036 174.208 17 14 
Clint Bowyer Ford 25 41.353 0.413 0.023 174.111 18 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 22 41.363 0.423 0.010 174.069 19 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 33 41.425 0.485 0.062 173.808 20 95 Matt DiBenedetto Toyota 27 41.438 0.498 0.013 173.754 21 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 25 41.439 0.499 0.001 173.749 22 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 30 41.496 0.556 0.057 173.511 23 6 Ryan Newman Ford 26 41.509 0.569 0.013 173.456 24 21 Paul Menard Ford 34 41.513 0.573 0.004 173.440 25 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 27 41.522 0.582 0.009 173.402 26 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 23 41.532 0.592 0.010 173.360 27 32 Corey Lajoie Ford 14 41.570 0.630 0.038 173.202 28 47 Ryan Preece Chevrolet 22 41.571 0.631 0.001 173.198 29 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 24 41.646 0.706 0.075 172.886 30 38 David Ragan Ford 10 41.811 0.871 0.165 172.203 31 15 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 7 42.099 1.159 0.288 171.025 32 36 Matt Tifft Ford 6 42.292 1.352 0.193 170.245 33 00 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 14 42.724 1.784 0.432 168.524 34 51 Cody Ware Chevrolet 16 42.741 1.801 0.017 168.457 35 27 Reed Sorenson Chevrolet 11 43.160 2.220 0.419 166.821 36 77 Garrett Smithley Chevrolet 12 43.590 2.650 0.430 165.175 37 52 B.J. McLeod Ford 7 43.939 2.999 0.349 163.864 38 66 Joey Gase Toyota 10 45.878 4.938 1.939 156.938
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