Ryan Newman tops Chase Elliott in final Darlington practice

Newman’s posted a best average lap speed of 171.698 mph very early in the 50-minute session. Chase Elliott ended up second (171.512 mph) and Jimmie Johnson third (171.023 mph). They were the only driver to cross eclipse the 171 mph mark.

Kyle Busch was fourth fastest and Kurt Busch completed the top-five.

Rounding out the Top 10 were Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne, Clint Bowyer, Ryan Blaney and Alex Bowman.

Newman is still looking for his first win of the season in the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. His best finish this year was sixth at New Hampshire last month.

“Really good balance-wise, end-to-end on the race track,” Newman said of his car over the radio during his last run on the track.

About 20 minutes into the session, Denny Hamlin – who was fastest in Friday’s first practice – scraped the outside wall but the damage didn’t appear to be very serious.

Shortly afterwards, Aric Almirola also made contact with the wall, but his damage on the No. 10 Ford seemed more substantial.

“Got the right side, bad,” Almirola said over his team radio. “I got it bad, I’m telling you.”

Cla	#	Driver	4506	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	43	28.641			171.698
2	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	38	28.672	0.031	0.031	171.512
3	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	35	28.754	0.113	0.082	171.023
4	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	46	28.771	0.130	0.017	170.922
5	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	33	28.865	0.224	0.094	170.365
6	6	Matt Kenseth	Ford	26	28.920	0.279	0.055	170.041
7	95	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	32	28.949	0.308	0.029	169.871
8	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	35	28.961	0.320	0.012	169.801
9	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	43	28.967	0.326	0.006	169.766
10	88	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	42	29.014	0.373	0.047	169.491
11	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	24	29.066	0.425	0.052	169.187
12	22	Joey Logano	Ford	62	29.103	0.462	0.037	168.972
13	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	49	29.110	0.469	0.007	168.932
14	20	Erik Jones	Toyota	45	29.136	0.495	0.026	168.781
15	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	52	29.172	0.531	0.036	168.573
16	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	42	29.174	0.533	0.002	168.561
17	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	23	29.244	0.603	0.070	168.158
18	21	Paul Menard	Ford	43	29.298	0.657	0.054	167.848
19	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	34	29.300	0.659	0.002	167.836
20	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	43	29.310	0.669	0.010	167.779
21	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	29	29.321	0.680	0.011	167.716
22	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	32	29.332	0.691	0.011	167.653
23	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	26	29.356	0.715	0.024	167.516
24	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	28	29.361	0.720	0.005	167.487
25	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	30	29.376	0.735	0.015	167.402
26	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	27	29.470	0.829	0.094	166.868
27	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	23	29.478	0.837	0.008	166.823
28	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	26	29.529	0.888	0.051	166.535
29	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.	Chevrolet	25	29.531	0.890	0.002	166.523
30	38	David Ragan	Ford	7	29.599	0.958	0.068	166.141
31	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	13	29.638	0.997	0.039	165.922
32	72	Corey Lajoie	Chevrolet	18	29.875	1.234	0.237	164.606
33	96	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Toyota	24	30.054	1.413	0.179	163.625
34	00	Landon Cassill	Chevrolet	23	30.291	1.650	0.237	162.345
35	15	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	13	30.646	2.005	0.355	160.465
36	99	Derrike Cope	Chevrolet	14	30.655	2.014	0.009	160.418
37	66	Timmy Hill	Toyota	12	30.696	2.055	0.041	160.203
38	52	J.J. Yeley	Chevrolet	12	30.712	2.071	0.016	160.120
39	51	B.J. McLeod	Chevrolet	2	31.269	2.628	0.557	157.268
40	23	Joey Gase	Toyota	4	31.889	3.248	0.620	154.210