Ryan Blaney leads Cup practice at Bristol; Harvick wrecks

Blaney, who earned his career-best 10th-place finish at Bristol last August, posted an average lap speed of 129.877 mph to top the 55-minute session. Erik Jones posted the same speed ended up ranked second based on driver points.

Kurt Busch bolted into the top three at the end of the session (129.657 mph). Last weekend’s race winner, Kyle Busch, was fourth and Kyle Larson completed the top-five.

Rounding out the Top 10 were Denny Hamlin, Alex Bowman, Brad Keselowski, David Ragan and Martin Truex Jr.

About 46 minutes into the session, Darrell Wallace Jr. tagged the wall, followed by Kevin Harvick, who appeared to break something in the left-side of his car, shot up the track and into the frontstretch wall.

“Something obviously either came off or broke in the front suspension," Harvick said. "It looks more like the right-front, to tell you the truth.  It definitely wasn’t a tire failure or anything like that, but just going in the corner as soon as I let off the gas it just hung a right, so it’s unfortunate for our Busch Beer/Jimmy John’s Ford, but we’ll get another one out and do it again.”

Harvick’s Stewart-Haas Racing team immediately brought out a backup car and he will have to start Sunday’s race from the rear of the field. Wallace’s Richard Petty Motorsports team was making repairs to his No. 43 Chevrolet.

In 34 prior Cup races at Bristol, the 2014 Cup champion’s worst start was 40th in the spring event in 2007. Driving for Richard Childress Racing at the time, Harvick climbed 36 spots to finish fourth.

With less than 15 minutes remaining in the session, A.J. Allmendinger appeared to hit the wall and spun off Turn 1. Allmendinger’s elected not to move to a backup car.

Tony Gibson has temporarily returned to a crew chief role at Stewart-Haas Racing this weekend working with driver Aric Almirola and the No. 10 Ford. Gibson is filling on for John Klausmeier, who remained in Mooresville for the birth of his child.

Almirola was 12th-fastest in the session.

Four drivers – Jamie McMurray, Paul Menard, Larson and Reed Sorenson – had to sit out the final 15 minutes of the session. All four teams failed pre-race inspection at Texas last weekend.

Bristol has already applied the PJ1 traction compound to the track surface. It was laid down this weekend to the bottom four feet of the racing surface (it has gone as high as eight feet in the past).

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	10	14.774			129.146
2	20	Erik Jones	Toyota	23	14.774	0.000	0.000	129.146
3	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	14	14.799	0.025	0.025	128.928
4	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	15	14.822	0.048	0.023	128.728
5	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	17	14.840	0.066	0.018	128.571
6	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	21	14.842	0.068	0.002	128.554
7	88	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	20	14.859	0.085	0.017	128.407
8	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	11	14.874	0.100	0.015	128.278
9	38	David Ragan	Ford	18	14.875	0.101	0.001	128.269
10	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	11	14.883	0.109	0.008	128.200
11	95	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	19	14.936	0.162	0.053	127.745
12	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	18	14.939	0.165	0.003	127.719
13	22	Joey Logano	Ford	32	14.957	0.183	0.018	127.566
14	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	15	14.963	0.189	0.006	127.515
15	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	11	14.971	0.197	0.008	127.446
16	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	12	14.977	0.203	0.006	127.395
17	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	16	14.981	0.207	0.004	127.361
18	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	13	14.991	0.217	0.010	127.276
19	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	22	15.018	0.244	0.027	127.048
20	21	Paul Menard	Ford	15	15.026	0.252	0.008	126.980
21	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.	Chevrolet	24	15.031	0.257	0.005	126.938
22	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	22	15.032	0.258	0.001	126.929
23	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	16	15.040	0.266	0.008	126.862
24	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	14	15.044	0.270	0.004	126.828
25	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	15	15.075	0.301	0.031	126.567
26	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	12	15.093	0.319	0.018	126.416
27	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	10	15.139	0.365	0.046	126.032
28	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	15	15.140	0.366	0.001	126.024
29	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	16	15.211	0.437	0.071	125.436
30	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	27	15.213	0.439	0.002	125.419
31	00	Landon Cassill	Chevrolet	24	15.246	0.472	0.033	125.148
32	23	Gray Gaulding	Toyota	19	15.254	0.480	0.008	125.082
33	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	15	15.266	0.492	0.012	124.984
34	15	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	18	15.294	0.520	0.028	124.755
35	96	D.J. Kennington	Toyota	22	15.566	0.792	0.272	122.575
36	55	Reed Sorenson	Chevrolet	11	15.604	0.830	0.038	122.276
37	66	Chad Finchum	Toyota	20	15.725	0.951	0.121	121.335
38	72	Corey Lajoie	Chevrolet	13	15.741	0.967	0.016	121.212
39	51	Harrison Rhodes	Chevrolet	30	15.770	0.996	0.029	120.989