Practice report

NASCAR Cup Pocono

Kyle Busch leads final practice at Pocono

Kyle Busch continued to lead the Monster Energy Cup Series tour in Happy Hour on Saturday.

Lee Spencer

Edited: Jun 10, 2017, 4:43 PM

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Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

After winning his third pole at Pocono Raceway on Friday, Busch was fastest in final practice as well.

Martin Truex Jr., (174.071mph) was the first car out on the track, but Busch quickly established the fast lap of 175.421mph on his second lap which held up during the entire session.

“Lately, we’ve certainly been better,” Busch said of the 2.5-mile tricky triangle. “I’ve had some second-place finishes and third-place finishes, so I feel like I’ve figured it out better there lately.

“With the way our cars at JGR have been overall, I’m very optimistic that we could score a victory there this weekend or, if not, when we come back later in the summer with our M&M’S Red, White, and Blue Camry.”

Brad Keselowski was second followed by Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick, Chase Elliott, Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne and Joey Logano.

Initially, Larson was second with a speed of 175.210mph. While Larson was working his 10th laps, he spun sideway in Turn 2 and barely collected Kyle Busch just before the 10-minute mark. Busch was still leading the session with Larson second followed by Ryan Newman, Harvick, Logano, Kahne, Keselowski, Bowyer, Blaney and Paul Menard.

Denny Hamlin, who leads the tour with four wins at Pocono, had completed nine laps prior to the caution along with Busch. Thirty-five of 39 cars had established times. The track returned to green seven minutes later.

Twenty minutes in, Kurt Busch jumped up to third with a lap of 174.910mph in his initial run.

“It seems squishy soft on hard braking,” Busch said. “There’s a lot of roll in the front.”
Newman remained fourth followed Harvick. Harvick then bounced around Busch with a speed of 175.050mph. Moments later, Hamlin ran picked up speed and drilled the back of the No. 31 Chevy. Both cars continued on.

Kyle Busch remained atop the board midway through the session followed by Larson, Harvick, Chase Elliott (174.944mph), Kurt Busch, Newman, Kasey Kahne (174.710mph), Joey Logano (174.710mph), Keselowski and Matt Kenseth (174.605mph). Michael McDowell’s 19 laps were the most completed.

With 20-minutes remaining, many of the teams worked on pit-road speed — including

Keselowski climbed up to second (175.285mph) on sticker tires with just over 15-minutes remaining in the 55-minute session. Busch held onto P1 with Larson, Harvick and Elliott rounding out the top-five speeds.

NASCAR called a caution for debris at the start-finish line with 11 minutes to go in Happy Hour. Ten cars made a mad dash with less than 10-minutes to continue dialing in the cars. Most of the field followed suit. Four minutes later, Busch was sideways in Turn 3 while and nearly brushed the SAFER barrier as he completed his 24th lap.

Harvick’s 32 laps were the most completed in final practice.

Cla#DriverManufacturerLapsTimeGapIntervalMph 1 18 united_states Kyle Busch Toyota 29 51.305 175.421 2 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 21 51.345 0.040 0.040 175.285 3 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 28 51.367 0.062 0.022 175.210 4 24 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 21 51.406 0.101 0.039 175.077 5 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 32 51.414 0.109 0.008 175.050 6 41 united_states Kurt Busch Ford 23 51.455 0.150 0.041 174.910 7 31 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 22 51.456 0.151 0.001 174.907 8 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 27 51.459 0.154 0.003 174.897 9 5 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 28 51.514 0.209 0.055 174.710 10 22 Joey Logano Ford 20 51.514 0.209 0.000 174.710 11 20 united_states Matt Kenseth Toyota 23 51.545 0.240 0.031 174.605 12 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 21 51.550 0.245 0.005 174.588 13 77 Erik Jones Toyota 20 51.552 0.247 0.002 174.581 14 21 Ryan Blaney Ford 20 51.601 0.296 0.049 174.415 15 78 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 10 51.636 0.331 0.035 174.297 16 27 united_states Paul Menard Chevrolet 20 51.693 0.388 0.057 174.105 17 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 27 51.694 0.389 0.001 174.101 18 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 26 51.721 0.416 0.027 174.011 19 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 24 51.753 0.448 0.032 173.903 20 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 16 51.894 0.589 0.141 173.430 21 47 united_states A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 12 51.906 0.601 0.012 173.390 22 10 Danica Patrick Ford 27 51.939 0.634 0.033 173.280 23 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 20 51.964 0.659 0.025 173.197 24 6 Trevor Bayne Ford 18 52.004 0.699 0.040 173.064 25 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 19 52.021 0.716 0.017 173.007 26 19 mexico Daniel Suarez Toyota 17 52.034 0.729 0.013 172.964 27 43 united_states Darrell Wallace Jr. Ford 19 52.177 0.872 0.143 172.490 28 95 Michael McDowell Chevrolet 26 52.179 0.874 0.002 172.483 29 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 21 52.289 0.984 0.110 172.120 30 32 Matt DiBenedetto Ford 12 52.625 1.320 0.336 171.021 31 34 Landon Cassill Ford 23 52.871 1.566 0.246 170.226 32 38 united_states David Ragan Ford 19 53.023 1.718 0.152 169.738 33 83 Corey Lajoie Toyota 9 53.124 1.819 0.101 169.415 34 23 Gray Gaulding Toyota 15 53.274 1.969 0.150 168.938 35 72 Cole Whitt Chevrolet 11 53.356 2.051 0.082 168.678 36 15 Reed Sorenson Chevrolet 15 53.467 2.162 0.111 168.328 37 33 united_states Jeffrey Earnhardt Chevrolet 21 53.798 2.493 0.331 167.292 38 51 Cody Ware Chevrolet 13 54.363 3.058 0.565 165.554 39 55 Derrike Cope Chevrolet 11 55.050 3.745 0.687 163.488

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