Practice report

NASCAR Cup Chicagoland

Kyle Busch leads the way in final practice at Chicagoland

Kyle Busch topped the speed chart in Happy Hour on Saturday.

Lee Spencer

Edited: Sep 16, 2017, 7:55 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Busch set the early pace in final practice with a lap of 180.252mph at Chicagoland Speedway.

Austin Dillon was second-quick (179.438mph) followed by Keselowski (179.289mph), Elliott (179.134mph), Bowyer (178.542mph), Hamlin (178.312mph), Blaney (177.515), Bayne, Landon Cassill and Ryan Newman.

“This is one of those places that is kind of like last week, tire wear is a big deal and being able to keep both right sides on it – you have the keep the right front and you have to keep the right rear on it,” Busch said. “I just haven’t been very good at being able to do that here in the long runs. We definitely have our work cut out for us with that and getting a good race package setup for Sunday.”

In the first five minutes, Stenhouse bounced up to eighth followed by McMurray then Bayne. At the 10-minute mark, the top 10 remained the same. Cassill dropped to 11th followed by Newman Larson, Danica Patrick, Paul Menard, Chris Buescher, David Ragan, Corey LaJoie, Cole Whitt and Brett Moffitt.

“I started pretty tight on exit, the entry was good,” said Hamlin after 19 laps.

But drivers in time out became the hot topic in final practice with half the field waiting on pit road until their penalties expired. The top 10 speeds remained the same after the first 15 minutes, once the first round penalized drivers were released that pylon quickly changed.

Joey Logano, Michael McDowell, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Matt DiBenedetto, Ty Dillon and Dale Earnhardt Jr., had 15-minute holds for failing qualifying inspection twice.

Truex was the first driver to post a time after serving his penalty. He was eighth-quick on his first lap — 177.871mph. Harvick climbed up to sixth (178.359mph). Logano bounced up to ninth with his first lap (177.643mph).

Blaney dropped to 10th-quick followed by Stenhouse Jr., McMurray, Trevor Bayne, Landon Cassill and Ryan Newman. Kyle Larson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Danica Patrick, Kurt Busch and Paul Menard rounded out the top 20.

“Way too loose off the wall,” Earnhardt said ofter his 10th lap.

At the 30-minute mark, NASCAR released the final group of penalized drivers — Aric Almirola and Jimmie Johnson — both failed qualifying inspection twice at Chicagoland and Richmond, as well as Erik Jones who failed qualifying inspection three times. Jones jumped up to 14th-quick (176.765mph), Almirola climbed up to 21st (176.108mph) and Johnson (175.701mph) ended up 24th on the speed chart.

With 10 minutes remaining on the clock, Busch led the top 10. Larson had posted the 11th fastest lap (177.357mph) and his 43 circuits were the most completed. Stenhouse, McMurray, Jones, Bayne, Cassill, Newman, Daniel Suarez, Earnhardt and Patrick rounded out the top 20.

“It’s eight numbers tight center off,” Kyle Busch said on his final run. Elliott and McMurray’s 53 laps were the most completed in the final practice session leading into the Tales of the Turtles 400 on Sunday.

Twenty-six cars posted Best 10 Consecutive Lap Averages with Harvick leading the category with a speed of 175.784mph. Kyle Busch was second (175.667mph) followed by Elliott (175.363mph), Truex (175.119mph), Hamlin (174.739mph), Austin Dillon (174.717mph), Logano (177.548mph), Keselowski (174.534mph), Bowyer (174.517mph) and Larson (174.397mph).

Cla#DriverManufacturerLapsTimeGapIntervalMph 1 18 united_states Kyle Busch Toyota 39 29.958 180.252 2 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 28 30.094 0.136 0.136 179.438 3 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 48 30.119 0.161 0.025 179.289 4 24 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 53 30.145 0.187 0.026 179.134 5 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 33 30.245 0.287 0.100 178.542 6 4 united_states Kevin Harvick Ford 38 30.276 0.318 0.031 178.359 7 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 47 30.284 0.326 0.008 178.312 8 78 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 33 30.359 0.401 0.075 177.871 9 22 Joey Logano Ford 49 30.398 0.440 0.039 177.643 10 21 Ryan Blaney Ford 35 30.420 0.462 0.022 177.515 11 42 united_states Kyle Larson Chevrolet 52 30.447 0.489 0.027 177.357 12 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 34 30.540 0.582 0.093 176.817 13 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 53 30.541 0.583 0.001 176.811 14 77 Erik Jones Toyota 22 30.549 0.591 0.008 176.765 15 6 Trevor Bayne Ford 22 30.552 0.594 0.003 176.748 16 34 united_states Landon Cassill Ford 37 30.559 0.601 0.007 176.707 17 31 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 31 30.575 0.617 0.016 176.615 18 19 mexico Daniel Suarez Toyota 22 30.591 0.633 0.016 176.523 19 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 25 30.651 0.693 0.060 176.177 20 10 Danica Patrick Ford 43 30.659 0.701 0.008 176.131 21 43 united_states Aric Almirola Ford 17 30.663 0.705 0.004 176.108 22 41 Kurt Busch Ford 29 30.679 0.721 0.016 176.016 23 20 Matt Kenseth Toyota 13 30.718 0.760 0.039 175.793 24 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 22 30.734 0.776 0.016 175.701 25 27 Paul Menard Chevrolet 31 30.811 0.853 0.077 175.262 26 95 united_states Michael McDowell Chevrolet 26 30.861 0.903 0.050 174.978 27 5 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 23 30.892 0.934 0.031 174.803 28 47 A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 25 30.906 0.948 0.014 174.723 29 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 30 30.930 0.972 0.024 174.588 30 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 30 30.931 0.973 0.001 174.582 31 32 united_states Matt DiBenedetto Ford 37 31.135 1.177 0.204 173.438 32 38 David Ragan Ford 32 31.163 1.205 0.028 173.282 33 23 Corey Lajoie Toyota 19 31.304 1.346 0.141 172.502 34 72 Cole Whitt Chevrolet 11 31.523 1.565 0.219 171.303 35 83 Brett Moffitt Toyota 23 31.586 1.628 0.063 170.962 36 33 united_states Jeffrey Earnhardt Chevrolet 25 31.734 1.776 0.148 170.164

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 Truex tops second NASCAR Cup practice at Chicagoland

Next article Iconic Wood Brothers looking to add to their history in first playoffs

Top Comments

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

View More & Comment

Latest news

William Byron to run Jeff Gordon throwback Axalta scheme at Phoenix

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Charlotte II

23 min

William Byron to run Jeff Gordon throwback Axalta scheme at Phoenix

Alexander Rossi takes over IR-28 testing as IndyCar pushes new chassis to the limit at Sebring

IndyCar

Indy IndyCar 39 min

Alexander Rossi takes over IR-28 testing as IndyCar pushes new chassis to the limit at Sebring

Daniel Suarez will return to Spire Motorsports for 2027 NASCAR Cup season

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Charlotte II

44 min

Daniel Suarez will return to Spire Motorsports for 2027 NASCAR Cup season

Spy shots of 2027 NASCAR Ford Mustang testing at Charlotte, but what's different?

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Charlotte II

3 h

Spy shots of 2027 NASCAR Ford Mustang testing at Charlotte, but what's different?

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