Kyle Busch showed early speed in Friday’s opening practice at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, topping the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series leaderboard with a best lap of 134.292 mph.
Busch is a three-time winner at the 1.058-mile track. He is also the series’ most recent New Hampshire winner, prevailing from the pole in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota.
RELATED: Practice 1 results | Weekend schedule
Kyle Larson was second-fastest at 133.788 mph in the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 Chevrolet. Denny Hamlin, the race’s defending winner, turned in the third-best lap in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota with JGR teammate Erik Jones fourth on the leaderboard.
JGR completed a season sweep at New Hampshire last season, part of the organization’s recent run of five wins in the last six Loudon races.
Ryan Blaney rounded out the top five as the fastest Ford driver in the 50-minute session ahead of Sunday’s Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM).
Martin Truex Jr., last week’s winner at Kentucky Speedway, was ninth-fastest in the Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Toyota.
An incident involving the Front Row Motorsports No. 38 Ford of David Ragan caused the only stoppage in opening practice at the 32-minute mark. Ragan slid out of the racing groove entering Turn 3 and scraped the outside retaining wall.
Six teams had 15 minutes deducted from their practice time because of infractions during inspection last weekend at Kentucky Speedway. The affected teams:
- 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Daniel Suarez
- 23 BK Racing Toyota of Blake Jones
- 47 JTG Daugherty Chevrolet of AJ Allmendinger
- 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of Jimmie Johnson
- 51 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet of BJ McLeod
- 99 StarCom Racing Chevrolet of Kyle Weatherman
Monster Energy Series teams will set the starting lineup for Sunday’s 301-lapper with Busch Pole Qualifying at 4:45 p.m ET (NBCSN).
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