Ricky Stenhouse Jr. tops Larson in final Darlington Cup practice

Stenhouse’s average lap speed of 168.845 mph was set relatively early in the 50-minute session. Kyle Larson ended up second (168.764 mph) and William Byron was third (168.480 mph).

In six career starts at Darlington, Stenhouse’s best finish was 12th in last season’s Southern 500.

Kurt Busch, who topped the first session, ended up fourth and Matt DiBenedetto completed the top-five.

Rounding out the top-10 were Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Alex Bowman.

Larson had the fastest average lap speed (166.897 mph) among those drivers who ran at least 10 consecutive laps. Hamlin and Kyle Busch were second and third, respectively, in that category.

About 11 minutes into the session, Aric Almirola slammed into the wall, doing extensive damage to the right side of his No. 10 Ford. 

The damage was severe enough that Almirola’s team elected to bring out his backup car, which means he’ll have to start Sunday night’s race from the rear of the field regardless of where he qualifies on Saturday.

Cla	#	Driver		Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		Ford	34	29.125			168.845
2	42	Kyle Larson		Chevrolet	42	29.139	0.014	0.014	168.764
3	24	William Byron		Chevrolet	47	29.188	0.063	0.049	168.480
4	1	Kurt Busch		Chevrolet	50	29.226	0.101	0.038	168.261
5	95	Matt DiBenedetto		Toyota	38	29.228	0.103	0.002	168.250
6	2	Brad Keselowski		Ford	53	29.230	0.105	0.002	168.238
7	19	Martin Truex Jr.		Toyota	59	29.235	0.110	0.005	168.209
8	11	Denny Hamlin		Toyota	49	29.245	0.120	0.010	168.152
9	22	Joey Logano		Ford	61	29.275	0.150	0.030	167.980
10	88	Alex Bowman		Chevrolet	43	29.291	0.166	0.016	167.888
11	14	Clint Bowyer		Ford	44	29.296	0.171	0.005	167.859
12	41	Daniel Suarez		Ford	49	29.318	0.193	0.022	167.733
13	10	Aric Almirola		Ford	8	29.319	0.194	0.001	167.727
14	18	Kyle Busch		Toyota	51	29.321	0.196	0.002	167.716
15	4	Kevin Harvick		Ford	50	29.324	0.199	0.003	167.699
16	48	Jimmie Johnson		Chevrolet	45	29.340	0.215	0.016	167.607
17	37	Chris Buescher		Chevrolet	26	29.357	0.232	0.017	167.510
18	9	Chase Elliott		Chevrolet	42	29.374	0.249	0.017	167.413
19	20	Erik Jones		Toyota	45	29.387	0.262	0.013	167.339
20	21	Paul Menard		Ford	44	29.416	0.291	0.029	167.174
21	12	Ryan Blaney		Ford	38	29.431	0.306	0.015	167.089
22	47	Ryan Preece		Chevrolet	22	29.466	0.341	0.035	166.891
23	6	Ryan Newman		Ford	41	29.553	0.428	0.087	166.399
24	8	Daniel Hemric		Chevrolet	40	29.568	0.443	0.015	166.315
25	32	Corey Lajoie		Ford	12	29.573	0.448	0.005	166.287
26	3	Austin Dillon		Chevrolet	39	29.598	0.473	0.025	166.146
27	34	Michael McDowell		Ford	38	29.613	0.488	0.015	166.062
28	13	Ty Dillon		Chevrolet	41	29.621	0.496	0.008	166.017
29	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.		Chevrolet	33	29.806	0.681	0.185	164.987
30	36	Matt Tifft		Ford	46	29.816	0.691	0.010	164.932
31	38	David Ragan		Ford	40	29.870	0.745	0.054	164.633
32	00	Landon Cassill		Chevrolet	34	30.113	0.988	0.243	163.305
33	54	Garrett Smithley		Chevrolet	7	31.191	2.066	1.078	157.661
34	66	Joey Gase		Toyota	16	31.813	2.688	0.622	154.578