Results: Brad Keselowski leads Friday's lone Sprint Cup Series practice at Texas
Brad Keselowski led Friday’s lone round of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice for Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. And as always, the 1.5-mile Texas track was blindingly fast.
Keselowski’s best lap in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford was 197.059 miles per hour, which allowed him to edge defending series champion Kevin Harvick, who ran 196.421 miles per hour in the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet.
Carl Edwards was third in the first of the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas, followed by Kyle Larson and Keselowski’s teammate, Joey Logano.
Rookie Erik Jones, subbing for the suspended Matt Kenseth, was an impressive eighth in another JGR Toyota.
Qualifying is set for Friday at 6:45 p.m. ET, with two rounds of practice on Saturday.
The AAA Texas 500 is the second of three races in the Eliminator Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Four drivers will advance from this round, to the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway in two weeks.
By virtue of his victory last weekend at Martinsville Speedway, Jeff Gordon is already locked into the Championship Round at Homestead. That leaves seven drivers battling for the final three spots.
Among the top five drivers in practice, all but Larson are still in the championship hunt.
