Practice report

NASCAR Cup Kansas II

Blaney leads opening Kansas practice, Larson wrecks

Ryan Blaney led Friday's NASCAR Cup practice from Kansas Speedway for Team Penske.

Nick DeGroot

Edited: Oct 20, 2018, 2:31 AM

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Ryan Blaney, Team Penske, Ford Fusion Menards/Wrangler Riggs Workwear

Blaney, who is fighting to escape elimination from the 2018 playoffs, led the way with a 192.130mph lap. Kyle Busch trailed him by just 0.053 seconds with another title contender in Kevin Harvick third, just 0.001 seconds slower than Busch.

All three seemed to focus on qualifying runs with Blaney and Busch running just five laps and Harvick running three. A.J. Allmendinger and Darrell Wallace Jr. ran the most laps at 13 each.

During the session, Jimmie Johnson had a bit of a moment that sent him up the hill in Turns 1 and 2, but he got away with it. Later on, Kyle Larson wasn't so lucky. With 15 minutes to go, he started to lose the car while running the bottom line and slid up the track, slamming the wall and forcing the No. 42 team to a back-up car.

"Just mad at myself ... made a mistake, got loose. I cracked it (the throttle), but its like the second the time I cracked it, I don't know if I got on the splitter or what but then it didn't turn and went straight," he told NBCSN.

"Hate it that I wrecked the primary car there. I'm sure our backup car will be fine ... we're always pretty good here at Kansas. Just dig deep and work hard and see what we can do on Sunday."

Larson's team was docked ten championship points earlier this week and finds themselves in a must-win situation entering Kansas.

Cla # Driver 4506 Laps Time Gap Interval Mph 1 12 United States Ryan Blaney Ford 5 28.106 192.130 2 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 5 28.159 0.053 0.053 191.768 3 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 3 28.160 0.054 0.001 191.761 4 22 Joey Logano Ford 5 28.179 0.073 0.019 191.632 5 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 5 28.210 0.104 0.031 191.421 6 20 Erik Jones Toyota 5 28.227 0.121 0.017 191.306 7 21 United States Paul Menard Ford 5 28.253 0.147 0.026 191.130 8 41 Kurt Busch Ford 5 28.279 0.173 0.026 190.954 9 10 Aric Almirola Ford 4 28.299 0.193 0.020 190.819 10 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 5 28.304 0.198 0.005 190.786 11 24 William Byron Chevrolet 5 28.322 0.216 0.018 190.665 12 88 United States Alex Bowman Chevrolet 7 28.327 0.221 0.005 190.631 13 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 7 28.338 0.232 0.011 190.557 14 31 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 7 28.405 0.299 0.067 190.107 15 78 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 3 28.408 0.302 0.003 190.087 16 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 5 28.438 0.332 0.030 189.887 17 37 United States Chris Buescher Chevrolet 7 28.452 0.346 0.014 189.793 18 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 4 28.456 0.350 0.004 189.767 19 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 5 28.469 0.363 0.013 189.680 20 6 Trevor Bayne Ford 5 28.481 0.375 0.012 189.600 21 47 A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 13 28.495 0.389 0.014 189.507 22 42 United States Kyle Larson Chevrolet 2 28.528 0.422 0.033 189.288 23 19 Mexico Daniel Suarez Toyota 4 28.554 0.448 0.026 189.115 24 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 7 28.640 0.534 0.086 188.547 25 38 David Ragan Ford 6 28.670 0.564 0.030 188.350 26 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 5 28.730 0.624 0.060 187.957 27 95 United States Regan Smith Chevrolet 12 28.772 0.666 0.042 187.682 28 34 Michael McDowell Ford 6 28.798 0.692 0.026 187.513 29 43 Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 13 28.831 0.725 0.033 187.298 30 32 Matt DiBenedetto Ford 7 28.951 0.845 0.120 186.522 31 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 11 28.956 0.850 0.005 186.490 32 96 United States Jeffrey Earnhardt Toyota 7 29.816 1.710 0.860 181.111 33 15 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 3 29.827 1.721 0.011 181.044 34 00 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 5 29.879 1.773 0.052 180.729 35 99 Kyle Weatherman Chevrolet 2 29.928 1.822 0.049 180.433 36 23 J.J. Yeley Toyota 6 30.006 1.900 0.078 179.964 37 72 United States Corey Lajoie Chevrolet 12 30.200 2.094 0.194 178.808 38 51 B.J. McLeod Chevrolet 2 30.532 2.426 0.332 176.864 39 66 Timmy Hill Toyota 4 30.649 2.543 0.117 176.188 40 7 Reed Sorenson Chevrolet 4 30.908 2.802 0.259 174.712

Take a virtual lap around Kansas Speedway, courtesy of NASCAR Heat 3:

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