Practice report

NASCAR Cup Sonoma

Martin Truex Jr. fastest in eventful Cup practice at Sonoma

Former Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway winner Martin Truex Jr. led the way in the first Cup Series practice session on Friday.

Jim Utter

Edited: Jun 21, 2019, 8:13 PM

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Martin Truex Jr., Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota Camry Bass Pro Shops

It was the first time Cup drivers got to tackle “The Carousel,” which has been added back to the course as part of the track’s 50 th anniversary celebration.

Truex’s average lap at 95.326 mph topped Ryan Blaney (95.195 mph) and Chris Buescher (95.041 mph). Jimmie Johnson was fourth and Michael McDowell rounded out the top-five.

The Carousel plunges from Turn 4 down through Turns 5 and 6 before dropping onto the raceway’s longest straightaway into the Turn 7 hairpin. It adds about a half-mile to the course’s length.

Rounding out the top-10 in practice were Alex Bowman, Clint Bowyer, Kyle Busch, Daniel Suarez and David Ragan.

It was an eventful one hour, 20-minute session for several drivers.

Bubba Wallace got off course in the opening minutes of the session.

About 30 mins into the session, Denny Hamlin got off course in T4 but was able to continue on with incident.

Kyle Larson spun off course near Turn 7 about 47 minutes into session.

Austin Dillon’s No. 3 Chevrolet required repairs after he made contact with the tire barrier in Turn 11 during the session. He received some damage to the right-side of his car.

Kyle Weatherman practiced Ross Chastain’s No. 15 Chevrolet as Chastain is at Gateway for the Gander Outdoors NASCAR Truck Series race.

Truex had to sit out the final 15 minutes of the session after his No. 19 Toyota twice failed pre-qualifying inspection at Michigan two weeks ago.

Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Mph 1 19 United States Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 20 1'35.168 95.326 2 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 21 1'35.299 0.131 0.131 95.195 3 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 21 1'35.454 0.286 0.155 95.041 4 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 21 1'35.460 0.292 0.006 95.035 5 34 Michael McDowell Ford 20 1'35.723 0.555 0.263 94.773 6 88 United States Alex Bowman Chevrolet 25 1'35.736 0.568 0.013 94.761 7 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 22 1'35.879 0.711 0.143 94.619 8 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 18 1'36.170 1.002 0.291 94.333 9 41 Mexico Daniel Suarez Ford 19 1'36.403 1.235 0.233 94.105 10 38 David Ragan Ford 21 1'36.585 1.417 0.182 93.928 11 21 United States Paul Menard Ford 16 1'37.053 1.885 0.468 93.475 12 22 Joey Logano Ford 17 1'37.166 1.998 0.113 93.366 13 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 19 1'37.380 2.212 0.214 93.161 14 24 William Byron Chevrolet 27 1'37.685 2.517 0.305 92.870 15 10 Aric Almirola Ford 20 1'37.924 2.756 0.239 92.643 16 32 United States Corey Lajoie Ford 22 1'38.166 2.998 0.242 92.415 17 1 Kurt Busch Chevrolet 22 1'38.189 3.021 0.023 92.393 18 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 22 1'38.311 3.143 0.122 92.279 19 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 24 1'38.466 3.298 0.155 92.133 20 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 25 1'38.472 3.304 0.006 92.128 21 11 United States Denny Hamlin Toyota 20 1'38.489 3.321 0.017 92.112 22 95 Matt DiBenedetto Toyota 18 1'38.747 3.579 0.258 91.871 23 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 15 1'38.826 3.658 0.079 91.798 24 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 19 1'38.879 3.711 0.053 91.749 25 20 Erik Jones Toyota 21 1'38.957 3.789 0.078 91.676 26 47 United States Ryan Preece Chevrolet 19 1'38.967 3.799 0.010 91.667 27 6 Ryan Newman Ford 19 1'38.975 3.807 0.008 91.660 28 96 Parker Kligerman Toyota 21 1'39.033 3.865 0.058 91.606 29 36 Matt Tifft Ford 21 1'39.155 3.987 0.122 91.493 30 8 Daniel Hemric Chevrolet 23 1'39.565 4.397 0.410 91.116 31 43 United States Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 23 1'39.988 4.820 0.423 90.731 32 77 Justin Haley Chevrolet 14 1'40.066 4.898 0.078 90.660 33 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 22 1'40.139 4.971 0.073 90.594 34 00 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 19 1'40.546 5.378 0.407 90.227 35 51 J.J. Yeley Ford 9 1'41.019 5.851 0.473 89.805 36 27 United States Reed Sorenson Chevrolet 6 1'41.763 6.595 0.744 89.148 37 52 Cody Ware Ford 4 1'42.036 6.868 0.273 88.910 38 15 Kyle Weatherman Chevrolet 4 1'43.699 8.531 1.663 87.484

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