Practice report
NASCAR Cup Las Vegas
Pole-sitter Ryan Blaney paces final practice at Las Vegas
Ryan Blaney and Kyle Larson continued to show the way in Saturday’s final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice session.
Jim Utter
Edited: Mar 4, 2018, 8:35 PM
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Blaney, who won the pole for Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, topped the leaderboard in the final practice with an average lap speed of 186.445 mph.
Close behind at 186.136 mph was Kyle Larson, who was fastest in Friday’s practice session and Saturday morning’s first session.
“We have always done pretty well here with hitting the set-ups right. I like this place,” Blaney said. “It is just a combination of everyone working hard and Ford. It just shows the speed we have had all weekend, not just our car, but everybody.
“It would be really nice to get a win here early in the season and get everything started off on the right foot here this first stint before the first break.”
Reigning series champion and last year’s Las Vegas race winner, Martin Truex Jr., ended up third-fastest. Chase Elliott was fourth and rookie William Byron completed the top-five.
Rounding out the top 10 were Ryan Newman, Brad Keselowski, Daniel Suarez, Joey Logano and Erik Jones.
Keselowski was among several drivers who commented about the windy conditions during the session.
“Tell you what, this place is a handful with that wind,” Keselowski said after completing a run. He completed the most laps (55) during the 50-minute session.
Aric Almirola, Kyle Busch and Chris Buescher were all held out of the final 15 minutes of the practice session for failing pre-qualifying inspection twice on Friday.
Larson was the fastest among the drivers who completed at least 10 consecutive laps, with an average lap speed of 183.935 mph. He was followed by Kevin Harvick, Truex, Keselowski and Elliott.
Cla#DriverManufacturerLapsTimeGapIntervalMph 1 12 
Ryan Blaney Ford 34 28.963 186.445 2 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 44 29.011 0.048 0.048 186.136 3 78 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 28 29.018 0.055 0.007 186.091 4 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 31 29.023 0.060 0.005 186.059 5 24 William Byron Chevrolet 35 29.032 0.069 0.009 186.002 6 31 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 38 29.034 0.071 0.002 185.989 7 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 55 29.066 0.103 0.032 185.784 8 19 
Daniel Suarez Toyota 33 29.076 0.113 0.010 185.720 9 22 Joey Logano Ford 47 29.102 0.139 0.026 185.554 10 20 Erik Jones Toyota 44 29.114 0.151 0.012 185.478 11 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 39 29.150 0.187 0.036 185.249 12 10 Aric Almirola Ford 39 29.151 0.188 0.001 185.242 13 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 23 29.155 0.192 0.004 185.217 14 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 47 29.184 0.221 0.029 185.033 15 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 29 29.199 0.236 0.015 184.938 16 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 41 29.213 0.250 0.014 184.849 17 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 46 29.231 0.268 0.018 184.735 18 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 30 29.243 0.280 0.012 184.660 19 95 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 36 29.263 0.300 0.020 184.533 20 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 30 29.267 0.304 0.004 184.508 21 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 29 29.296 0.333 0.029 184.326 22 6 Trevor Bayne Ford 31 29.310 0.347 0.014 184.237 23 88 Alex Bowman Chevrolet 40 29.325 0.362 0.015 184.143 24 43 Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 39 29.344 0.381 0.019 184.024 25 51 Cole Custer Chevrolet 42 29.352 0.389 0.008 183.974 26 47 A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 25 29.372 0.409 0.020 183.849 27 41 Kurt Busch Ford 48 29.407 0.444 0.035 183.630 28 21 Paul Menard Ford 37 29.429 0.466 0.022 183.492 29 34 Michael McDowell Ford 37 29.580 0.617 0.151 182.556 30 38 David Ragan Ford 36 29.580 0.617 0.000 182.556 31 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 43 29.608 0.645 0.028 182.383 32 32 Matt DiBenedetto Ford 23 29.774 0.811 0.166 181.366 33 72 Cole Whitt Chevrolet 20 30.013 1.050 0.239 179.922 34 15 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 22 30.269 1.306 0.256 178.400 35 00 Jeffrey Earnhardt Chevrolet 16 30.716 1.753 0.447 175.804 36 23 Gray Gaulding Toyota 8 30.934 1.971 0.218 174.565 37 55 Joey Gase Chevrolet 16 31.588 2.625 0.654 170.951
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