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Kevin Harvick Paces Opening Charlotte Practice

Kevin Harvick, under the bright North Carolina sun, took his hot orange No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet to the top of the charts during opening Sprint Cup Series practice at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Ripping around the 1.5-mile track in 27.870 seconds [193.757 mph], Harvick beat second-place Alex Bowman by 0.126 seconds in the 90-minute session in preparation for Saturday night’s Bank of America 500.

Completing the top 5 were a few expected contenders in Martin Truex, Jr., Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin, three Toyota drivers who finished first, second and ninth last week at Dover International Speedway.

Though Bowman was the only non-Chaser in the top 5, the session was mostly led by Kyle Larson and AJ Allmendinger, who each took early laps to end up sixth and seventh, respectively.

Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards and Kurt Busch completed the top 10 as Chase Elliott was the lowest of the 12 Chase drivers in 17th fastest.

With rain expected to impact Friday’s on-track activities, there were 14 drivers who turned more than 30 laps on track.

Click here for full practice speeds

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