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Busch Brothers Top The Board In First Kansas Practice

Kyle Busch opened Friday Sprint Cup Series practice at the Kansas Speedway as the fastest driver.

Busch turned a lap 194.595 mph. The lap came in the closing minutes of the session as Busch and other drivers went out for mock qualifying runs. Busch won at Kansas in the spring race and has continued his momentum at the 1.5 mile D-shaped oval.

Second was Kyle’s older brother Kurt Busch at 194.119 mph. The 2004 Sprint Cup champion has never won at Kansas but finished third in the spring and second back in 2013. Carl Edwards, who also has never won at Kansas but has 12 top 10s in 18 starts, was third.

Alex Bowman, who continues to sub for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in his hunt for a job next season, was fourth. Chase Elliott finished ninth in the spring in his only Sprint Cup start at Kansas and followed that up by being fifth in this session.

Kyle Busch and eliminated Chase driver Kyle Larson were held by NASCAR and were not allowed out of the garage for the first 30 minutes of the session. The crime? Swerving their cars following last weekend’s Charlotte race. It’s the first time NASCAR has penalized drivers for this after NASCAR executive Steve O’Donnell warned drivers against the practice following the race at New Hampshire last month. Larson ended the session 21st and both drivers only ran five laps (Busch) and six laps (Larson) in the session.

The practice started late as light mist forced NASCAR to dry the racetrack. This session was originally supposed to run for 85 minutes but the clean-up trimmed it into 70 minutes.

Late in the session, the No. 98 Chevrolet of Reed Sorenson had a mechanical problem that required a quick caution period. Sorenson ended the session 39th on the board.

Full results can be found here.

About the author

Michael has watched NASCAR for 20 years and regularly covered the sport from 2013-2021, and also formerly covered the SRX series from 2021-2023. He now covers the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and road course events in the NASCAR Cup Series.

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