Kyle Busch leads Toyota 1-2-3-4 in first Chicagoland practice

Busch’s seventh circuit was his fastest — 184.143mph (29.325-seconds).

“At Chicago, we ran really well there in ’08 and, unfortunately, ’09, ’10 and ’11 we kind of a struggled,” who won here from the pole in 2008. “The last several years we ran well there but didn’t always get the finishes we deserved for how well we ran. We had a really solid top-five run going the last two years.”

Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Daniel Suarez also found speed towards the end of the 85-minute session and posted the second fastest lap — 183.418mph. Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Danica Patrick, Ryan Blaney and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top 10-single lap speeds. 

In the first five minutes, Chris Buescher posted the fastest single-lap run of the session — 178.540mph followed by David Ragan (175.896mph). Michael McDowell quickly topped that mark with a lap of 177.020mph.

Ryan Blaney was the first playoff contender on the 1.5-mile track. In his second lap he ran 181.598mph to bump the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford to the top of the speed chart.

Ten minutes into the session, Blaney continued to lead followed by Aric Almirola (178.012mph), Trevor Bayne (177.038mph), McDowell, Joey Logano (176.800mph), Buescher, Ragan, and Danica Patrick (175.838mph). Sixteen cars completed initial laps.

Kurt Busch jumped up to second-quick with a lap of 179.289mph before the 12-minute mark. Jamie McMurray vaulted to fourth (178.071mph).

Denny Hamlin was the next playoff driver to make a move. Within the first 15 minutes, the No. 11 vaulted to P1 with a lap of 181.604mph. Blaney dropped to second followed by Kenseth (181.153mph), Harvick (180.971mph), Truex (180.415mph), Keselowski (179.904mph), Austin Dillon (179.796mph), Kurt Busch, Larson (179.099mph) and Erik Jones (178.330mph).

At the 20-minute mark, 31 drivers had taken laps. Jimmie Johnson joined the party shortly after. His first lap, was 12th-quick (178.200mph). He was bumped by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (fifth, 180.971mph) and Kyle Busch (sixth, 180.898mph).

After the first 30 minutes, Hamlin still led the way with his single-lap run followed by Blaney, Kenseth, Harvick, Stenhouse, Kyle Busch, Truex, Daniel Suarez (180.150mph), Keselowski, Austin Dillon, Kurt Busch, Larson, Jones, Johnson and McMurray. Larson’s 12 laps were the most completed at that moment. 

Larson moved up to second with a lap of 182.556mph after 14 laps. Kyle Busch climbed to fifth (180.977mph), Harvick dropped to sixth followed by Stenhouse, Suarez, Truex and Jones 45 minutes into first practice. 

NASCAR’s threw the first yellow flag for a towel on the track at the 55-minute mark. Chase Elliott’s 22 laps were the most completed just before the first hour in. He was 18th on the chart with a lap of 177.819mph.

When the track returned to green, several drivers executed mock qualifying runs. Truex improved to third quick with his lap of 182.014mph. Harvick leapfrogged over Truex and Larson with a lap of 182.642mph after 65 minutes. Elliott cruised up to fifth (181.892mph). Before the 70-minute mark, Kyle Busch captures P4 (182.550mph) and bumped Elliott outside of the top five.Although Kurt Busch’s Q-run was interrupted by another driver, he recovered with the ninth fastest lap (181.318mph).

With 10 minutes remaining, the top six remained in tact followed by Suarez, Blaney, Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Jones, Kenseth, McMurray, Austin Dillon and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Kyle Busch took the top spot(184.143mph) with less than four minutes on the clock.

“P1,” the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team told Busch.

Suarez mock qualifying run lifted the No. 19 car to second — 183.418mph. Patrick cracked the top 10 with alpa of 181.849mph — fast enough for eighth. Kurt Busch made a final attempt but couldn’t improve on tenth quick.

“That was tight and I had to lift a ton off of Turn 4,” Busch said. “You’ll see it.”

Keselowski knocked Busch to 11th as first practice came to an end.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	7	29.325			184.143
2	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	7	29.441	0.116	0.116	183.418
3	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	8	29.521	0.196	0.080	182.921
4	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	9	29.531	0.206	0.010	182.859
5	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	5	29.566	0.241	0.035	182.642
6	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	18	29.580	0.255	0.014	182.556
7	24	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	26	29.688	0.363	0.108	181.892
8	10	Danica Patrick	Ford	22	29.695	0.370	0.007	181.849
9	21	Ryan Blaney	Ford	17	29.736	0.411	0.041	181.598
10	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	9	29.740	0.415	0.004	181.574
11	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	9	29.740	0.415	0.000	181.574
12	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	18	29.758	0.433	0.018	181.464
13	77	Erik Jones	Toyota	7	29.783	0.458	0.025	181.311
14	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	9	29.795	0.470	0.012	181.238
15	20	Matt Kenseth	Toyota	5	29.809	0.484	0.014	181.153
16	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	14	29.820	0.495	0.011	181.087
17	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	18	29.833	0.508	0.013	181.008
18	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	8	29.848	0.523	0.015	180.917
19	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	9	29.869	0.544	0.021	180.789
20	22	Joey Logano	Ford	28	29.900	0.575	0.031	180.602
21	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	18	29.905	0.580	0.005	180.572
22	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	16	29.981	0.656	0.076	180.114
23	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	18	29.983	0.658	0.002	180.102
24	95	Michael McDowell	Chevrolet	15	29.997	0.672	0.014	180.018
25	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	14	30.031	0.706	0.034	179.814
26	43	Aric Almirola	Ford	14	30.073	0.748	0.042	179.563
27	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	18	30.125	0.800	0.052	179.253
28	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	20	30.190	0.865	0.065	178.867
29	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	11	30.332	1.007	0.142	178.030
30	38	David Ragan	Ford	18	30.332	1.007	0.000	178.030
31	23	Corey Lajoie	Toyota	6	30.367	1.042	0.035	177.825
32	27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	17	30.443	1.118	0.076	177.381
33	83	Brett Moffitt	Toyota	4	30.459	1.134	0.016	177.288
34	34	Landon Cassill	Ford	17	30.477	1.152	0.018	177.183
35	55	Gray Gaulding	Toyota	9	31.114	1.789	0.637	173.555
36	15	Reed Sorenson	Toyota	19	31.265	1.940	0.151	172.717
37	33	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Chevrolet	17	31.305	1.980	0.040	172.496
38	72	Cole Whitt	Chevrolet	15	31.522	2.197	0.217	171.309
39	66	Timmy Hill	Chevrolet	4	31.693	2.368	0.171	170.385
40	51	Ray Black Jr.	Chevrolet	18	32.598	3.273	0.905	165.654