Keselowski leads opening Cup practice at Talladega

Keselowski’s best time in the draft was 70.265-seconds after 27 laps.

Kurt Busch was second quick followed by Ryan Blaney, spring Talladega winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Aric Almirola, Danica Patrick, Joey Logano and Kasey Kahne.

Austin Dillon (P14) completed 32 circuits, the most during the 55-minute session.

Blaney led the Best 10 Consecutive Lap Average category with a speed of 196.829mph followed by Logano, Almirola, Keselowski, Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Erik Jones, Suarez, Kahne and Truex.

Twenty-two cars had completed at least one lap when Jimmie Johnson spun off of Turn 4 after cutting a left-rear tire on his first run. NASCAR called a caution just before eight minutes into the session.

“Popped a tire going into (turn) three and looking at some photos here a second ago, it looked like the tire was already soft down the back straightaway," Johnson said. "I guess I ran something over on the apron getting up to speed, and made, oh I don’t know, maybe a third of a lap and was spun out which is really bizarre.”

Practice returned to green eight minutes later with Denny Hamlin P1 (194.682mph). Brad Keselowski (197.859mph) shot to the top of the leader board moments later as a pack of 13 Fords gathered in the draft. Kurt Busch was second followed by Blaney, Stenhouse, Harvick, Bowyer, Almirola, Patrick, Logano, Landon Cassill, David Ragan, Matt DiBenedetto and Trevor Bayne.

At the 30-minute mark, NASCAR released Martin Truex Jr., who had a 30-minute practice hold — plus will serve an additional 15minutes in Happy Hour. AJ Allmendinger, who also had a total of 45-minutes in the penalty box, was released shortly after.

Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Blaney, Stenhouse, Harvick, Bowyer, Almirola, Patrick and Logano remained in the top nine with Austin Dillon coming in at 10th with a lap of196.685mph.

The Toyotas comprised the next drafting pack with Hamlin (196.746mph) and Truex (196.057mph) posting the top speeds. Kasey Kahne jumped in the group and moved up to 10th (197.082mph). Ty Dillon (196.746mph) moved up to 11th.

With five minutes remaining, the second caution was called for debris on the race track. The top nine remained the same with Kahne tenth followed by Ty Dillon, Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch, Truex, Matt Kenseth, Erik Jones, Bayne and Daniel Suarez.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	27	48.398			197.859
2	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	24	48.411	0.013	0.013	197.806
3	21	Ryan Blaney	Ford	19	48.413	0.015	0.002	197.798
4	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	24	48.422	0.024	0.009	197.761
5	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	22	48.438	0.040	0.016	197.696
6	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	22	48.442	0.044	0.004	197.680
7	43	Aric Almirola	Ford	21	48.445	0.047	0.003	197.667
8	10	Danica Patrick	Ford	21	48.450	0.052	0.005	197.647
9	22	Joey Logano	Ford	29	48.460	0.062	0.010	197.606
10	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	29	48.589	0.191	0.129	197.082
11	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	30	48.615	0.217	0.026	196.976
12	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	27	48.672	0.274	0.057	196.746
13	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	28	48.678	0.280	0.006	196.721
14	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	32	48.687	0.289	0.009	196.685
15	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	23	48.785	0.387	0.098	196.290
16	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	17	48.843	0.445	0.058	196.057
17	20	Matt Kenseth	Toyota	26	48.891	0.493	0.048	195.864
18	77	Erik Jones	Toyota	30	48.892	0.494	0.001	195.860
19	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	27	48.893	0.495	0.001	195.856
20	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	24	48.967	0.569	0.074	195.560
21	34	Landon Cassill	Ford	18	49.007	0.609	0.040	195.401
22	38	David Ragan	Ford	22	49.076	0.678	0.069	195.126
23	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	12	49.077	0.679	0.001	195.122
24	95	Michael McDowell	Chevrolet	24	49.141	0.743	0.064	194.868
25	27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	21	49.262	0.864	0.121	194.389
26	24	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	24	49.277	0.879	0.015	194.330
27	75	Brendan Gaughan	Chevrolet	9	49.388	0.990	0.111	193.893
28	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	25	49.455	1.057	0.067	193.631
29	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	13	49.793	1.395	0.338	192.316
30	33	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Chevrolet	12	50.404	2.006	0.611	189.985
31	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	18	50.572	2.174	0.168	189.354
32	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	11	50.693	2.295	0.121	188.902
33	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	13	50.712	2.314	0.019	188.831
34	83	Gray Gaulding	Toyota	17	50.881	2.483	0.169	188.204
35	23	Joey Gase	Toyota	12	50.992	2.594	0.111	187.794
36	7	Justin Marks	Chevrolet	12	51.561	3.163	0.569	185.722
37	55	D.J. Kennington	Toyota	3	52.143	3.745	0.582	183.649
38	72	Cole Whitt	Chevrolet	2	79.860	31.462	27.717	119.910