Kyle Larson leads second Cup practice at Las Vegas
Kyle Larson led the way in the second practice session of the weekend in the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet Camaro.
Photo by: John Harrelson / NKP / Motorsport Images
The first of two practices on Saturday ran for 55 minutes. With it taking place in the morning and under overcast skies, some considered it a 'throwaway' session.
Austin Dillon, Kyle Larson and Joey Gase had to serve 15-minute practice holds due to being late to the pre-qualifying inspection line.
Ryan Newman shot to the top of the board in the early minutes with a lap of 187.454mph and led the majority of the session. However, with less than 20 minutes to go, Larson supplanted him and put the No. 42 on top (187.559mph) before having to serve his penalty. Newman, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick and Alex Bowman rounded out the top five.
“The car is really good. We tested here about a month ago and were fast and got a good balance on our car," said Larson. I think this practice we were just kind of chasing the track a little bit. I was loose the first few runs we did and worked on tightening it up and then we put a set of stickers on there a few laps there at the end, ran a fast lap, but I built tight really fast. So, I think if we would have just waited to practice and left the same set-up on there to start we would have been fine. The track just went through a lot of changes, transition I think.”
Pole-sitter Ryan Blaney was sixth, Darrell Wallace Jr. seventh, Clint Bowyer eighth, Michael McDowell ninth, and defending Las Vegas winner Martin Truex Jr. clocked in tenth.
Erik Jones ran the most laps at 45.
Denny Hamlin had an eventful practice, initially complaining about his car bottoming out mid-corner. "It still has a freer sensation on entry but once I get into the center it just crashes. Same thing as last year," he told the team.
Later, he brought out a caution after cutting a right front tire and spitting debris onto the track from a brake duct that came apart.
"I heard a pop and then it started steering funny," Hamlin reported. He eventually returned to the race track for more practice and ended up 22nd on the board, completing 12 laps.
Joey Logano also had a bit of a moment, forced to check-up abruptly when he came up on the very slow moving No. 55 machine of Joey Gase.
Cla | # | Driver | Manufacturer | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 42 | Kyle Larson | Chevrolet | 17 | 28.791 | 187.559 | ||
2 | 31 | Ryan Newman | Chevrolet | 32 | 28.807 | 0.016 | 0.016 | 187.454 |
3 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | 26 | 28.941 | 0.150 | 0.134 | 186.587 |
4 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Ford | 10 | 29.089 | 0.298 | 0.148 | 185.637 |
5 | 88 | Alex Bowman | Chevrolet | 31 | 29.125 | 0.334 | 0.036 | 185.408 |
6 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Ford | 24 | 29.138 | 0.347 | 0.013 | 185.325 |
7 | 43 | Darrell Wallace Jr. | Chevrolet | 14 | 29.139 | 0.348 | 0.001 | 185.319 |
8 | 14 | Clint Bowyer | Ford | 30 | 29.141 | 0.350 | 0.002 | 185.306 |
9 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Ford | 25 | 29.173 | 0.382 | 0.032 | 185.103 |
10 | 78 | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | 39 | 29.174 | 0.383 | 0.001 | 185.096 |
11 | 1 | Jamie McMurray | Chevrolet | 31 | 29.177 | 0.386 | 0.003 | 185.077 |
12 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Ford | 28 | 29.197 | 0.406 | 0.020 | 184.951 |
13 | 22 | Joey Logano | Ford | 28 | 29.200 | 0.409 | 0.003 | 184.932 |
14 | 95 | Kasey Kahne | Chevrolet | 35 | 29.217 | 0.426 | 0.017 | 184.824 |
15 | 13 | Ty Dillon | Chevrolet | 22 | 29.218 | 0.427 | 0.001 | 184.818 |
16 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Chevrolet | 29 | 29.223 | 0.432 | 0.005 | 184.786 |
17 | 6 | Trevor Bayne | Ford | 20 | 29.231 | 0.440 | 0.008 | 184.735 |
18 | 20 | Erik Jones | Toyota | 45 | 29.237 | 0.446 | 0.006 | 184.697 |
19 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Ford | 30 | 29.238 | 0.447 | 0.001 | 184.691 |
20 | 24 | William Byron | Chevrolet | 27 | 29.246 | 0.455 | 0.008 | 184.641 |
21 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 26 | 29.248 | 0.457 | 0.002 | 184.628 |
22 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 22 | 29.261 | 0.470 | 0.013 | 184.546 |
23 | 51 | Cole Custer | Chevrolet | 20 | 29.316 | 0.525 | 0.055 | 184.200 |
24 | 37 | Chris Buescher | Chevrolet | 29 | 29.331 | 0.540 | 0.015 | 184.106 |
25 | 41 | Kurt Busch | Ford | 18 | 29.364 | 0.573 | 0.033 | 183.899 |
26 | 47 | A.J. Allmendinger | Chevrolet | 27 | 29.380 | 0.589 | 0.016 | 183.799 |
27 | 21 | Paul Menard | Ford | 34 | 29.387 | 0.596 | 0.007 | 183.755 |
28 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Ford | 26 | 29.499 | 0.708 | 0.112 | 183.057 |
29 | 38 | David Ragan | Ford | 32 | 29.515 | 0.724 | 0.016 | 182.958 |
30 | 32 | Matt DiBenedetto | Ford | 26 | 29.541 | 0.750 | 0.026 | 182.797 |
31 | 19 | Daniel Suarez | Toyota | 32 | 29.578 | 0.787 | 0.037 | 182.568 |
32 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | 17 | 29.584 | 0.793 | 0.006 | 182.531 |
33 | 72 | Cole Whitt | Chevrolet | 11 | 30.249 | 1.458 | 0.665 | 178.518 |
34 | 15 | Ross Chastain | Chevrolet | 21 | 30.258 | 1.467 | 0.009 | 178.465 |
35 | 23 | Gray Gaulding | Toyota | 21 | 30.576 | 1.785 | 0.318 | 176.609 |
36 | 00 | Jeffrey Earnhardt | Chevrolet | 22 | 31.034 | 2.243 | 0.458 | 174.003 |
37 | 55 | Joey Gase | Chevrolet | 10 | 31.104 | 2.313 | 0.070 | 173.611 |
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