Kyle Larson tops Vegas Cup practice; Burton crashes
Kyle Larson led the way in Saturday’s NASCAR Cup practice session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Larson posted the fastest average lap speed of 184.407 mph in the first 20-minute session. The top overall speeds all came from the first session on the track.
Team Penske teammates Ryan Blaney (183.973 mph) and Joey Logano (183.942 mph) were second and third, respectively.
Chris Buescher and William Byron rounded out the top-five. Bubba Wallace, fastest in the second 20-minute session, was sixth-fastest overall.
Neither B.J McLeod nor Tyler Reddick participated in the practice sessions.
Among the drivers who ran at least 10 consecutive laps, Byron had the fastest average speed (182.598 mph). Larson and Aric Almirola were second and third, respectively, in that category.
Group B
Wallace had the fastest average speed in the second session (183.255 mph).
“We had a long checklist but the car looks good,” Wallace said. “The speed is there. We’ll see what we got in qualifying.”
Kevin Harvick was second (183.243 mph) and Ty Gibbs was third (183.212 mph). Almirola and Ross Chastain rounded out the top-five.
With just seven into the session, Harrison Burton appeared to have a tire go down and spun up and into the Turn 2 wall, doing extensive damage to his No. 21 Ford.
Should Burton have to move to a backup car, he will have to start Sunday’s race from the rear of the field.
Group A
Larson led the way in the first 20-minute practice session Saturday with an average lap speed of 184.407 mph.
He was followed by Team Penske’s Blaney (183.973 mph) and Logano (183.942 mph). Buescher was fourth and Byron rounded out the top-five.
There were no on-track incidents during the session.
Saturday’s practice was Josh Berry’s first track time in Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 9 Chevrolet. Berry is filling in this weekend for Chase Elliott, who is recovering from a broken left leg suffered in a snowboarding accident on Friday in Colorado.
Berry ended up 13th fastest among the 16 drivers that took to the track. “After a few laps, I felt relatively comfortable,” Berry said. “I’ve got 400 miles to learn on Sunday.”
Cla | # | Driver | Manufacturer | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 5 | Kyle Larson | Chevrolet | 19 | 29.283 | 184.407 | |||
2 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Ford | 25 | 29.352 | 0.069 | 0.069 | 183.974 | |
3 | 22 | Joey Logano | Ford | 21 | 29.357 | 0.074 | 0.005 | 183.943 | |
4 | 17 | Chris Buescher | Ford | 25 | 29.367 | 0.084 | 0.010 | 183.880 | |
5 | 24 | William Byron | Chevrolet | 25 | 29.434 | 0.151 | 0.067 | 183.461 | |
6 | 23 | Bubba Wallace | Toyota | 15 | 29.467 | 0.184 | 0.033 | 183.256 | |
7 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Ford | 23 | 29.469 | 0.186 | 0.002 | 183.243 | |
8 | 54 | Ty Gibbs | Toyota | 20 | 29.474 | 0.191 | 0.005 | 183.212 | |
9 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Ford | 28 | 29.488 | 0.205 | 0.014 | 183.125 | |
10 | 1 | Ross Chastain | Chevrolet | 26 | 29.540 | 0.257 | 0.052 | 182.803 | |
11 | 2 | Austin Cindric | Ford | 22 | 29.558 | 0.275 | 0.018 | 182.692 | |
12 | 20 | Christopher Bell | Toyota | 27 | 29.584 | 0.301 | 0.026 | 182.531 | |
13 | 16 | A.J. Allmendinger | Chevrolet | 19 | 29.633 | 0.350 | 0.049 | 182.229 | |
14 | 14 | Chase Briscoe | Ford | 23 | 29.635 | 0.352 | 0.002 | 182.217 | |
15 | 43 | Erik Jones | Chevrolet | 28 | 29.637 | 0.354 | 0.002 | 182.205 | |
16 | 48 | Alex Bowman | Chevrolet | 28 | 29.646 | 0.363 | 0.009 | 182.149 | |
17 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Ford | 21 | 29.654 | 0.371 | 0.008 | 182.100 | |
18 | 99 | Daniel Suarez | Chevrolet | 17 | 29.690 | 0.407 | 0.036 | 181.879 | |
19 | 41 | Ryan Preece | Ford | 24 | 29.693 | 0.410 | 0.003 | 181.861 | |
20 | 21 | Harrison Burton | Ford | 10 | 29.704 | 0.421 | 0.011 | 181.794 | |
21 | 31 | Justin Haley | Chevrolet | 18 | 29.710 | 0.427 | 0.006 | 181.757 | |
22 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | Ford | 18 | 29.751 | 0.468 | 0.041 | 181.507 | |
23 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 31 | 29.764 | 0.481 | 0.013 | 181.427 | |
24 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Chevrolet | 26 | 29.782 | 0.499 | 0.018 | 181.318 | |
25 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | 21 | 29.806 | 0.523 | 0.024 | 181.172 | |
26 | 38 | Todd Gilliland | Ford | 25 | 29.923 | 0.640 | 0.117 | 180.463 | |
27 | 8 | Kyle Busch | Chevrolet | 17 | 29.941 | 0.658 | 0.018 | 180.355 | |
28 | 7 | Corey Lajoie | Chevrolet | 20 | 29.970 | 0.687 | 0.029 | 180.180 | |
29 | 9 | Josh Berry | Chevrolet | 26 | 30.069 | 0.786 | 0.099 | 179.587 | |
30 | 77 | Ty Dillon | Chevrolet | 21 | 30.078 | 0.795 | 0.009 | 179.533 | |
31 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | 22 | 30.130 | 0.847 | 0.052 | 179.223 | |
32 | 42 | Noah Gragson | Chevrolet | 22 | 30.199 | 0.916 | 0.069 | 178.814 | |
33 | 51 | Cody Ware | Ford | 23 | 30.258 | 0.975 | 0.059 | 178.465 | |
34 | 15 | J.J. Yeley | Ford | 18 | 30.331 | 1.048 | 0.073 | 178.036 |
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