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.

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	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
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