Practice report
NASCAR Cup Michigan II
Keselowski leads final practice; Johnson and Kahne find the wall
Polesitter Brad Keselowski led Happy Hour at his hometown track on Saturday.
Lee Spencer
Edited: Aug 12, 2017, 4:43 PM
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The Rochester Hill, Mich. native posted a single-lap speed of 200.865mph after 37 laps at Michigan International Speedway. Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr. (200.172mph) were the only drivers to pass the 200-mile-per-hour mark in final practice.
Keselowski is still looking for his first career win on the two-mile track. In 16 starts, Keselowski has earned five top-five finishes — his best was second in 2012. His eight top 10s were earned over his last 12 starts.
“Any success you have at your home track is right there with having success in the biggest races of the year like Daytona for the 500 and the championship,” Keselowski said. “It’s a big deal for any driver, not just myself. Of course, this is my home track and to be able to have any kind of success here just really feels so darn good and I just hope we can keep it up this weekend.”
Joey Logano posted the third fastest speed followed by Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Daniel Suarez and Jamie McMurray. Larson’s 40 laps were the most completed in Happy Hour.
Kyle Busch was the first car out on the track and set the early pace with a lap of 199.529mph. In the first five minutes, Larson was second (199.022mph) followed by Hamlin (198.988mph), Blaney (109.988mph) Keselowski (198.835mph), Earnhardt Jr. (198.813mph), Suarez (198.703mph), Logano (198.621mph), Truex Jr. (198.599mph) and Kurt Busch (198.533mph).
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. grazed the wall in the opening moments of the session after two laps. He was 32nd-quick.
Earnhardt bounced up to second on his next run with a lap of 199.463mph. Just before the 10-minute mark, Logano took over the top sport on the speed chart with a lap of 199.734mph.
Kevin Harvick was released from his 15-minute practice hold for being late to pre-qualifying/pre-race inspection at Watkins Glen. Jimmie Johnson, Reed Sorenson and Erik Jones served their timeouts for failing pre-qualifying inspection twice at Michigan.
Johnson didn’t complete his first lap before slamming into the wall in Turn 2. While the driver went to the Infield Care Center, the No. 48 crew pulled out the backup car with 30-minutes remaining in practice.
“As I turned into the corner, the back just turned around and off it went,” Johnson said.
“Just lost it on corner entry getting into Turn 1. The first lap at speed and the thing just rotated around. The effort level is high and you’ve got to run in there committed. I did so and unfortunately the rear grip just wasn’t there in the car and it came around.
“We’ll get this backup Chevy up and see what we can do with it. It’s going to be tough.”
When the track returned to green at the 23-minute mark, Logano was still atop the leader board. Kyle Busch was second followed by Earnhardt, Keselowski, Larson, Hamlin, Blaney, Kenseth, Suarez and Truex. Larson’s 20 laps completed were the most on the sheet.
Kasey Kahne also bounced off the wall on his return to the track and crinkled the right rear of the No. 5 Chevy coming out of Turn 1. Kahne was also forced to a backup car.
“We actually up to that point I had never had any tendencies of loose there at all,” Kahne said. “It was kind of interesting, made a change, came back out and I was coming into (Turn) 1 I basically lost my right-rear and was spinning as I was getting into the corner just sideways. Saved it, but then I was just going too fast and I got up in the gray and it went up and ended up running into the wall.
“So, it was kind of out of nowhere. was a bit surprised that happened. Our Liftmaster Chevrolet has been pretty close this morning and thought it was about the same the first run and then that happened on the second run.”
Thirty-minutes into practice, Keselowski shot to the top of the speed chart with a lap of 200.865mph. Truex was second (200.172mph) followed by Logano, Blaney, Kyle Busch, Earnhardt, Larson, Hamlin, Suarez and Jamie McMurray.
Matt DiBenedetto was released from a 30-minute practice hold after failing pre-qualifying inspection four times at Michigan and being late to pre-qualifying inspection at Watkins Glen.
With 10 minutes remaining in the 50-minute practice, Keselowski continued to lead the session with the top 10 in tact. Kenseth was 11th followed by Jones, Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, Chase Elliott, Clint Bowyer, Kahne, Chris Buescher, Austin Dillon and Trevor Bayne.
Cla#DriverManufacturerLapsTimeGapIntervalMph 1 2 
Brad Keselowski Ford 37 35.845 200.865 2 78 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 30 35.969 0.124 0.124 200.172 3 22 Joey Logano Ford 20 36.048 0.203 0.079 199.734 4 21 Ryan Blaney Ford 33 36.059 0.214 0.011 199.673 5 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 31 36.085 0.240 0.026 199.529 6 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 29 36.097 0.252 0.012 199.463 7 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 40 36.175 0.330 0.078 199.032 8 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 31 36.183 0.338 0.008 198.988 9 19 
Daniel Suarez Toyota 29 36.202 0.357 0.019 198.884 10 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 35 36.209 0.364 0.007 198.846 11 20 Matt Kenseth Toyota 29 36.227 0.382 0.018 198.747 12 77 Erik Jones Toyota 24 36.233 0.388 0.006 198.714 13 41 Kurt Busch Ford 34 36.266 0.421 0.033 198.533 14 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 18 36.294 0.449 0.028 198.380 15 24 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 16 36.318 0.473 0.024 198.249 16 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 32 36.321 0.476 0.003 198.232 17 5 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 15 36.352 0.507 0.031 198.063 18 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 26 36.362 0.517 0.010 198.009 19 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 27 36.403 0.558 0.041 197.786 20 6 Trevor Bayne Ford 18 36.408 0.563 0.005 197.759 21 31 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 19 36.438 0.593 0.030 197.596 22 95 Michael McDowell Chevrolet 27 36.542 0.697 0.104 197.034 23 43 Aric Almirola Ford 29 36.564 0.719 0.022 196.915 24 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 25 36.570 0.725 0.006 196.883 25 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 9 36.605 0.760 0.035 196.694 26 47 A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 19 36.619 0.774 0.014 196.619 27 10 Danica Patrick Ford 23 36.662 0.817 0.043 196.389 28 38 David Ragan Ford 24 36.984 1.139 0.322 194.679 29 27 Paul Menard Chevrolet 12 37.001 1.156 0.017 194.589 30 32 Matt DiBenedetto Ford 15 37.029 1.184 0.028 194.442 31 34 Landon Cassill Ford 21 37.037 1.192 0.008 194.400 32 23 Corey Lajoie Toyota 14 37.041 1.196 0.004 194.379 33 83 Brett Moffitt Toyota 25 37.296 1.451 0.255 193.050 34 72 Cole Whitt Chevrolet 13 37.327 1.482 0.031 192.890 35 33 Jeffrey Earnhardt Chevrolet 19 37.523 1.678 0.196 191.882 36 55 Reed Sorenson Chevrolet 8 38.237 2.392 0.714 188.299
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