Practice report

NASCAR Cup Bristol II

Denny Hamlin leads first NASCAR Cup practice at Bristol

Denny Hamlin’s girlfriend delivered the couple’s second child — Molly Gold — on Tuesday, while the driver delivered the top single-lap speed of 129.230mph in first practice at Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday.

Lee Spencer

Edited: Aug 18, 2017, 6:12 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

“I was loose in then banging the splitter pretty bad,” Hamlin said after completing 43 laps “It’s loose in at the two-thirds mark by a mile.” Hamlin posted 56 circuits during the 85-minute session

Kyle Busch was second-quick followed by Kasey Kahne, Ryan Blaney, Clint Bowyer, Matt Kenseth, Martin Truex Jr., Erik Jones, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Jimmie Johnson. Johnson’s 82 laps were the most posted during first practice.

Jamie McMurray led the Best 10 Consecutive Lap Average category with a speed of 126.604mph, followed by Hamlin (126.469mph), Daniel Suarez, Kyle Larson, Johnson, Jones, Kyle Busch, Bowyer, Aric Almirola and Dale Earnhardt Jr., rounded out the top 10 on 10-lap runs.

After the first 10 minutes, Hamlin shot to the top of the speed chart followed by Logano, Blaney, Ty Dillon, Landon Cassill, Corey LaJoie, Kenseth, Matt DiBenedetto and Chris Buescher.

“Slow,” Hamlin said after completing eight laps.

Jones moved up to the top of the board with a lap of 128.142mph after six laps. Johnson was third (127.997mph) after four laps. Stenhouse, Elliott, Kahne Blaney, Chris Buescher, Suarez and Ty Dillon rounded out the top 10 at the 15-minute mark.

Kyle Busch laid down the fastest lap (128.485mph), 17 minutes in the session. His Toyota teammates Jones and Hamlin remained second and third, respectively.

“Overall grip is pretty good, a little loose in, a little tight middle,” said McMurray after breaking into the top 10 with a lap of 127.792mph after 12 laps. “We need to work on the entry to start with. I’m a little bit guarded which hurts the middle.

Twenty-minutes in, Blaney bumped Kyle Busch to second with a lap of 128.917mph. Hamlin, Jones and Stenhouse rounded out the top-five single lap speeds. Matt Kenseth vaulted up to third with a top speed of 128.356mph after his 11-lap run — just before the 25-minute mark.

Kahne climbed to the top spot with a lap of 128.943mph, twenty-five minutes in. He was passed by Kyle Busch (129.221mph). Two minutes later, Larson triggered the red flag after spinning off of Turn 4. He had just completed 11 laps and was 21st on the speed chart.

The track returned to green just before the 30-minute mark. Busch remained atop the speed chart followed by Kahne, Blaney, Clint Bowyer, Kenseth, Jones, Stenhouse, Johnson and Elliott.

A couple minutes later, Hamlin jumped to P1 with a speed of 129.230mph. He held the top spot until caution came out for rain just before 50-minutes in. Kyle Busch was second followed by Kahne, Blaney, Bowyer, Kenseth, Truex, Jones, Stenhouse and Johnson.

NASCAR resumed practice 55-minutes in. Forty-one cars posted speeds. After the first hour, Johnson’s 45 laps were the most completed. His top speed was 127.997mph.

Cla#DriverManufacturerLapsTimeGapIntervalMph 1 11 united_states Denny Hamlin Toyota 56 14.848 129.230 2 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 44 14.849 0.001 0.001 129.221 3 5 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 29 14.881 0.033 0.032 128.943 4 21 Ryan Blaney Ford 68 14.884 0.036 0.003 128.917 5 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 46 14.946 0.098 0.062 128.382 6 20 Matt Kenseth Toyota 44 14.949 0.101 0.003 128.356 7 78 united_states Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 46 14.954 0.106 0.005 128.313 8 77 Erik Jones Toyota 55 14.970 0.122 0.016 128.176 9 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 71 14.990 0.142 0.020 128.005 10 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 82 14.991 0.143 0.001 127.997 11 24 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 55 14.995 0.147 0.004 127.963 12 19 mexico Daniel Suarez Toyota 47 14.996 0.148 0.001 127.954 13 1 united_states Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 78 15.002 0.154 0.006 127.903 14 41 Kurt Busch Ford 65 15.010 0.162 0.008 127.835 15 31 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 46 15.026 0.178 0.016 127.699 16 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 61 15.034 0.186 0.008 127.631 17 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 46 15.050 0.202 0.016 127.495 18 4 united_states Kevin Harvick Ford 42 15.050 0.202 0.000 127.495 19 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 36 15.055 0.207 0.005 127.453 20 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 57 15.060 0.212 0.005 127.410 21 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 78 15.066 0.218 0.006 127.360 22 43 Aric Almirola Ford 33 15.075 0.227 0.009 127.284 23 27 united_states Paul Menard Chevrolet 48 15.084 0.236 0.009 127.208 24 6 Trevor Bayne Ford 31 15.102 0.254 0.018 127.056 25 95 Michael McDowell Chevrolet 43 15.124 0.276 0.022 126.871 26 47 A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 51 15.126 0.278 0.002 126.854 27 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 65 15.145 0.297 0.019 126.695 28 34 united_states Landon Cassill Ford 56 15.165 0.317 0.020 126.528 29 38 David Ragan Ford 64 15.170 0.322 0.005 126.486 30 22 Joey Logano Ford 54 15.181 0.333 0.011 126.395 31 10 Danica Patrick Ford 47 15.220 0.372 0.039 126.071 32 32 Matt DiBenedetto Ford 52 15.344 0.496 0.124 125.052 33 51 united_states B.J. McLeod Chevrolet 3 15.353 0.505 0.009 124.979 34 83 Corey Lajoie Toyota 30 15.386 0.538 0.033 124.711 35 55 Gray Gaulding Chevrolet 17 15.429 0.581 0.043 124.363 36 72 Cole Whitt Chevrolet 33 15.435 0.587 0.006 124.315 37 23 Joey Gase Toyota 56 15.458 0.610 0.023 124.130 38 7 united_states J.J. Yeley Chevrolet 38 15.475 0.627 0.017 123.994 39 66 Timmy Hill Chevrolet 32 15.500 0.652 0.025 123.794 40 33 Jeffrey Earnhardt Chevrolet 35 15.545 0.697 0.045 123.435 41 15 Reed Sorenson Chevrolet 14 16.172 1.324 0.627 118.650

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Dale Earnhardt Jr. - "What in the hell is going on in this world?"

Next article Twitter to live-stream in-car cameras during NASCAR playoffs

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Alex Bowman hits out at critics in snarky post, shooting down early exit rumors

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

4 h

Alex Bowman hits out at critics in snarky post, shooting down early exit rumors

Ryan Blaney gets sweet redemption after 'nightmares' following 2024 Homestead loss

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

4 h

Ryan Blaney gets sweet redemption after 'nightmares' following 2024 Homestead loss

IndyCar 2026 season review: Dale Coyne Racing

IndyCar

Indy IndyCar 4 h

IndyCar 2026 season review: Dale Coyne Racing

Noah Gragson apologizes to Daniel Suarez for spinning him at Homestead

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

4 h

Noah Gragson apologizes to Daniel Suarez for spinning him at Homestead

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts