Brad Keselowski led the lone Sprint Cup Series practice at Texas Motor Speedway this afternoon with a fast lap of 197.059 mph. During the nearly two-hour session, the driver of the No. 2 Ford sat atop the leaderboard for much of the time. Kevin Harvick ran second-quickest at 196.421 mph, though he briefly spent time in the top spot. Carl Edwards ran third-quickest, followed by non-Chaser Kyle Larson in fourth. Joey Logano rounded out the top five.
Jamie McMurray found himself sixth on the leaderboard, followed by Ryan Blaney. Erik Jones, who will pilot the No. 20 Toyota in place of the suspended Matt Kenseth was eighth quickest. Greg Biffle and Kurt Busch rounded out the top 10.
Among the Chase drivers that did not make the top 10 are Kyle Busch, who was 11th quickest, Martinsville winner Jeff Gordon, who race 19th fastest but is already locked into Homestead and Martin Truex Jr., who was 20th with a lap of 194.693 mph.
No driver ran 10 consecutive laps, though much of the field posted at least 10 circuits. Landon Cassill ran the most laps at 32 and ended up 41st quickest.
Sprint Cup Series qualifying will be held this evening at 6:45 p.m. ET, and the series will hold two practice sessions on Saturday leading up to Sunday’s AAA Texas 500.