NASCAR Cup Series

Denny Hamlin fastest in Practice 1 as Daniel Suárez crashes

Published Mar. 31, 2017 1:18 p.m. ET

Tom Jensen

After a slow start to his season, Virginia native Denny Hamlin is back at home on an old-school short track.

Hamlin led Friday’s rain-delayed round of practice at Martinsville Speedway in advance of Sunday’s STP 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race (coverage starts Sunday at 12:30 p.m. ET on FS1).

During the session, Hamlin’s best lap was 95.256 miles per hour, enough to put the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on top of the speed chart ahead of teammate Kyle Busch.

Hamlin has five wins here and Busch is the defending race winner.

Third-fastest was last week’s winner, Kyle Larson, followed by Phoenix winner Ryan Newman and Larson’s teammate at Chip Ganassi Racing, Jamie McMurray.

During practice, rookie Daniel Suárez crashed going into Turn 3, backing his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota into the wall. The heavy contact forced Suarez to go to a backup car for the race.

“I don’t know what was going on with my brakes,” said Suarez. “Something felt weird.”

Today’s session was the only round of practice.

Qualifying takes places this afternoon at 5 p.m. ET on FS1, switching to FS2 at 5:30 p.m. ET

For complete Practice 1 results, see below.