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NASCAR Cup Talladega

Logano leads final Sprint Cup practice at Talladega

Joey Logano, who won last fall’s Sprint Cup race at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway in a squeaker over Dale Earnhardt Jr., was fastest in Friday’s final practice session.

Jim Utter

Edited: Apr 30, 2016, 1:16 AM

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Joey Logano, Team Penske Ford

Logano posted a session-best average single lap speed of 196.290 mph. He ran just nine laps in the session which was dominated by single-car runs.

Rookies Ryan Blaney (196.238 mph) and Chase Elliott (196.185 mph) were second and third-fastest, respectively. Elliott was also second fastest in Friday’s first session.

CLICK HERE for complete practice times

“We’ve been consistent in both practices. I don’t think we were where we wanted in the first practice but it’s been a lot better in the second practice,” Elliott said. “I think we made our car better in the second session but we didn’t have a big group of cars to draft with. That won’t be the case on Sunday.”

Danica Patrick posted the fourth-fastest lap and rookie Brian Scott was fifth.

Finishing sixth-10th: Kasey Kahne, Earnhardt, Trevor Bayne, Austin Dillon and Kurt Busch.

Only a handful of cars ran at least 10 consecutive laps in the session, but of those who did Patrick had the fastest average lap speed (192.142 mph) followed by Kahne and Elliott.

Denny Hamlin, who opened the 2016 season with wins in the non-points Sprint Unlimited and the Daytona 500, was 15th-fastest in the session and completed only two laps.

“Usually any other race track we go to we’re trying to get maximum track time. You don’t need all that practice time here, you’re just putting laps on your motor and equipment,” Hamlin said.

Hamlin’s 500-winning car now sits in Daytona USA so the team is using the No. 11 Toyota he won the Unlimited car this weekend. “It is one of the strongest cars we’ve had in a long time,” he said.

With 15 minutes left in the session, Tony Stewart took his first laps in his No. 14 Chevrolet and the team worked on the driver swap it will make in Sunday’s race.

Xfinity Series regular Ty Dillon will qualify the car on Saturday and will substitute for Stewart during the first caution of Sunday’s GEICO 500.

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