Practice report
NASCAR Cup Texas II
Ryan Blaney leads opening Texas practice with near 200mph lap
Ryan Blaney barely missed the 200-mile-per-hour mark in first practice at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday.
Lee Spencer
Edited: Nov 3, 2017, 6:56 PM
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On his sixth-run of the 85-minute session, Blaney posted a single-lap speed of 199.933mph breaking the previous track pole-record set by Matt Kenseth in the 2014 AAA Texas 500. The top qualifying track record was set by Tony Stewart (200.111mph) in the second round of the same qualifying session.
Denny Hamlin was second-quick followed by Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Kenseth, Chaes Elliott, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Larson.
Joey Gase’s 34 laps were the most completed during the session.
Kenseth (191.076mph) topped the speed chart in the opening minutes of the session, but Joey Logano bumped the No. 20 Toyota with a lap of 191.20mph. Earnhardt was the next driver to vault to the top on his first run with a single-lap speed of 192.871mph.
On his fifth lap, Ryan Blaney cruised to the top spot (193.292mph) only to be knocked off by Chase Elliott’s lap of 193.771mph.
After the first 10 minutes, 28 drivers had posted laps with Elliott P1 followed by Larson (193.750mph), Blaney, Kurt Busch, Earnhardt, Keselowski (194.602mph), Bowyer (193.882mph), Erik Jones (194.049mph), Landon Cassill (191.211mph) and Logano.
Jimmie Johnson attempted to post a lap but had no fuel pressure with the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevy and had to return to the garage.
Larson posted the fastest lap (195.858mph) on his second run. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., jumped to P1 with a lap of 196.628mph following his first five-lap run just before the 25-minute mark. Larson remained second followed by Blaney, Elliott, Earnhardt, Kurt Busch, Keselowski, Logano (194.532mph) and Kasey Kahne (194.510mph).
Thirty minutes into the session, Kyle Busch moved up to second (196.249mph) but was bumped by Truex (196.471mph). Larson dropped to fourth followed by Blaney, Elliott, Earnhardt, Kurt Busch and Keselowski. Logano ran 11th followed by Kahne, Jones, Harvick, Bowyer, AJ Allmendinger, Denny Hamlin, Chris Buescher, Daniel Suarez and Austin Dillon.
Johnson remained in the garage as the team worked to replace his fuel cell. After the 35-minute mark, Johnson attempted to make his second run but reported he had single-digit numbers on his fuel pressure gauge.
“It’s fine in the garage, it’s just having trouble getting going, going wide open,” Johnson radioed to the crew. “I don’t know if it’s the throttle position or what.”
Stenhouse remained atop the pylon after 40 minutes of practice. Kenseth (197.477mph)
moved back to second after his fourth lap. Truex, Busch, Elliott, Larson, Blaney, Jamie McMurray, Earnhardt and Kurt Busch completed the top 10 as drivers worked on qualifying runs.
Kenseth posted the quick-speed of 198.749mph before the 50-minute mark. Truex was second (198.690mph) followed by Blaney (198.413mph), Stenhouse, McMurray (197.795mph), Earnhardt (197.571mph), Kahne (196.807mph), Allmendinger (196.738mph), Kurt Busch and Kyle Busch.
Kurt Busch posted the fastest lap (199.181mph) after the first hour of practice — but was topped by Blaney’s mock qualifying run of 199.498mph. Johnson still had yet to post a lap as the team continued to work on the fuel system issue.
With 15 minutes remaining, Blaney led the session followed by Kurt Busch, Kenseth, Truex, Stenhouse, Elliott, Harvick, McMurray, Earnhardt and Keselowski. Moments later, Truex returned to third-fastest (198.939mph).At one hour, 11 minutes, Johnson headed out to pit road for the third time. Two minutes later, Johnson posted his first lap. He was 27th on the speed chart (193.868mph) after his shake down lap and returned to the garage with 10 minutes to go in the session. Johnson returned to the track with five minutes to go. He moved up to 19th on his third lap — 196.428mph.
Denny Hamlin climbed to second in the closing minutes with a lap of 199.196mph.
Daniel Hemric, who was subbing for Paul Menard, was 28th-quick (195.178mph)after his first full Monster Energy Cup Series practice session. Hemric will also qualify the No. 27 Chevy while Menard is on maternity leave. Menard is expected to return for Happy Hour and Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 300.
Cla#DriverManufacturerLapsTimeGapIntervalMph 1 21 
Ryan Blaney Ford 18 27.009 199.933 2 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 21 27.109 0.100 0.100 199.196 3 41 Kurt Busch Ford 13 27.111 0.102 0.002 199.181 4 78 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 11 27.142 0.133 0.031 198.954 5 20 Matt Kenseth Toyota 10 27.170 0.161 0.028 198.749 6 24 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 25 27.170 0.161 0.000 198.749 7 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 12 27.227 0.218 0.057 198.333 8 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 22 27.259 0.250 0.032 198.100 9 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 16 27.269 0.260 0.010 198.027 10 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 21 27.290 0.281 0.021 197.875 11 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 16 27.301 0.292 0.011 197.795 12 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 19 27.327 0.318 0.026 197.607 13 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 18 27.331 0.322 0.004 197.578 14 77 Erik Jones Toyota 18 27.344 0.335 0.013 197.484 15 19 
Daniel Suarez Toyota 13 27.380 0.371 0.036 197.224 16 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 9 27.408 0.399 0.028 197.023 17 5 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 22 27.438 0.429 0.030 196.807 18 47 A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 24 27.445 0.436 0.007 196.757 19 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 3 27.491 0.482 0.046 196.428 20 95 Michael McDowell Chevrolet 21 27.500 0.491 0.009 196.364 21 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 25 27.504 0.495 0.004 196.335 22 22 Joey Logano Ford 25 27.507 0.498 0.003 196.314 23 38 David Ragan Ford 20 27.610 0.601 0.103 195.581 24 34 Landon Cassill Ford 18 27.635 0.626 0.025 195.404 25 31 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 12 27.637 0.628 0.002 195.390 26 43 Aric Almirola Ford 25 27.650 0.641 0.013 195.298 27 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 24 27.667 0.658 0.017 195.178 28 27 Daniel Hemric Chevrolet 24 27.705 0.696 0.038 194.911 29 10 Danica Patrick Ford 22 27.718 0.709 0.013 194.819 30 32 Matt DiBenedetto Ford 17 27.789 0.780 0.071 194.321 31 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 14 27.870 0.861 0.081 193.757 32 72 Cole Whitt Chevrolet 16 28.138 1.129 0.268 191.911 33 83 Gray Gaulding Toyota 9 28.164 1.155 0.026 191.734 34 23 Corey Lajoie Toyota 21 28.168 1.159 0.004 191.707 35 6 Trevor Bayne Ford 19 28.205 1.196 0.037 191.455 36 15 Reed Sorenson Chevrolet 13 28.292 1.283 0.087 190.867 37 51 Ray Black Jr. Chevrolet 15 28.919 1.910 0.627 186.728 38 7 Joey Gase Chevrolet 34 29.023 2.014 0.104 186.059 39 33 Jeffrey Earnhardt Chevrolet 23 29.222 2.213 0.199 184.792 40 66 David Starr Chevrolet 5 30.239 3.230 1.017 178.577
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