Results from first practice for Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire
The strength of Joe Gibbs Racing continued to be on display Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, as Carl Edwards topped the speed charts in the opening Sprint Cup Series practice for this Sunday's Sylvania 300.
Edwards used a late run in qualifying trim to put up a best lap of 27.823 seconds at 136.894 miles per hour.
Three-time New Hampshire winner Jimmie Johnson was second-fastest, after spending much of the session atop the leaderboard. Spending the majority of the session in qualifying trim, Johnson’s best lap was 27.823 seconds at 136.311 mph.
Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski put his No. 2 Ford third on the charts with a fast lap of 28.161 seconds at 135.251 miles per hour. Keselowski won the July 2014 Loudon race, sat on the pole for the 2014 Chase race and was second to teammate Joey Logano earlier this year.
Non-Chase driver Kyle Larson was fourth fastest in the session with a lap of 27.974 seconds at 136.058 mph.
Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kurt Busch put his No. 41 Chevrolet atop the speed charts for a good portion of the practice. However, as other teams moved into qualifying trim, Busch was bumped back to fifth when the session ended.
Busch’s crew chief Tony Gibson made the trip to New Hampshire Friday morning, days after having emergency surgery. The veteran crew chief called the shots throughout the opening session from pit road and the garage, and it obviously did not slow down the team’s efforts one bit.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jamie McMurray, Jeff Gordon, AJ Allmendinger and Matt Kenseth rounded out the top 10.
Here is how the other Chase drivers ended up after the first practice of the weekend: Kevin Harvick (11th), Joey Logano (13th), Kyle Busch (14th), Martin Truex Jr. (15th), Denny Hamlin (16th), Ryan Newman (18th), Paul Menard (22nd) and Clint Bowyer (26th).
Check out the full results from Friday's first Sprint Cup practice at New Hampshire Motor Speedway here:
