Practice report
NASCAR Cup Pocono
Kyle Busch paces final NASCAR Cup practice at Pocono
Kyle Busch, who earned the most recent Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory at Pocono Raceway, led the way in Saturday’s final practice session.
Jim Utter
Edited: Jun 2, 2018, 7:55 PM
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Busch posted his fast lap (174.588 mph) on his first lap on the track in the 1 hour, 20-minute session. Busch starts fifth in Sunday’s Pocono 400.
“It’s certainly been pretty good last few races here at Pocono, being the defending winner of the fall race. You know, it certainly is pretty cool to come back here and try to do it again, especially after last week, and the momentum that we’ve kind of had on our side for the year, and especially from last week,” Busch said.
“Every week is a new week. Every week is different. We always just try to keep improving and continuing to build up our performance and keep it going for the rest of this regular season.”
Kevin Harvick was second-fastest (174.115 mph) and Martin Truex Jr. was third (173.953 mph). Alex Bowman and Aric Almirola both jumped to the fourth and fifth positions late in the session.
Completing the Top were Kyle Larson, pole-winner Ryan Blaney, Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano and Jamie McMurray.
Midway through the session, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spun off Turn 2 but kept his No. 17 Ford off the wall.
“We’ve been really loose, really all weekend. Yesterday, we were looking for handling and speed but I felt like we’ve closed the gap on the Top 10 on speed, now we’re just trying to find the handling,” he said.
“We’ve been a little bit loose, a little bit tight. I feel like I never really practice well here. At Pocono, we race a little better than we practice. We’ll see. We’re trying to get some more speed in it.”
Stenhouse ended up 19th fastest.
Three drivers had to sit out the final 15 minutes of practice – Cole Custer and Derrike Cope (late to qualifying inspection) and Daniel Suarez (failed qualifying inspection twice).
Cla#DriverManufacturerLapsTimeGapIntervalMph 1 18 
Kyle Busch Toyota 33 51.550 174.588 2 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 36 51.690 0.140 0.140 174.115 3 78 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 30 51.738 0.188 0.048 173.953 4 88 Alex Bowman Chevrolet 40 51.826 0.276 0.088 173.658 5 10 Aric Almirola Ford 42 51.853 0.303 0.027 173.568 6 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 37 51.885 0.335 0.032 173.461 7 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 32 51.915 0.365 0.030 173.360 8 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 38 51.922 0.372 0.007 173.337 9 22 Joey Logano Ford 49 51.924 0.374 0.002 173.330 10 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 44 51.955 0.405 0.031 173.227 11 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 34 51.960 0.410 0.005 173.210 12 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 31 51.964 0.414 0.004 173.197 13 41 Kurt Busch Ford 34 51.984 0.434 0.020 173.130 14 20 Erik Jones Toyota 34 52.067 0.517 0.083 172.854 15 31 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 27 52.082 0.532 0.015 172.804 16 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 40 52.112 0.562 0.030 172.705 17 21 Paul Menard Ford 29 52.159 0.609 0.047 172.549 18 24 William Byron Chevrolet 32 52.170 0.620 0.011 172.513 19 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 26 52.173 0.623 0.003 172.503 20 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 26 52.190 0.640 0.017 172.447 21 19 
Daniel Suarez Toyota 25 52.254 0.704 0.064 172.236 22 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 30 52.363 0.813 0.109 171.877 23 43 Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 24 52.450 0.900 0.087 171.592 24 6 Matt Kenseth Ford 26 52.480 0.930 0.030 171.494 25 32 Matt DiBenedetto Ford 24 52.482 0.932 0.002 171.487 26 47 A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 17 52.482 0.932 0.000 171.487 27 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 22 52.504 0.954 0.022 171.416 28 38 David Ragan Ford 35 52.520 0.970 0.016 171.363 29 95 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 24 52.568 1.018 0.048 171.207 30 51 Cole Custer Chevrolet 33 52.681 1.131 0.113 170.840 31 34 Michael McDowell Ford 19 52.821 1.271 0.140 170.387 32 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 22 52.984 1.434 0.163 169.863 33 15 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 15 53.648 2.098 0.664 167.760 34 00 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 17 53.803 2.253 0.155 167.277 35 72 Cole Whitt Chevrolet 15 53.931 2.381 0.128 166.880 36 23 Gray Gaulding Toyota 10 54.082 2.532 0.151 166.414 37 7 J.J. Yeley Chevrolet 10 54.350 2.800 0.268 165.593 38 99 Derrike Cope Chevrolet 15 54.702 3.152 0.352 164.528
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