Coming off of a dominating performance in the Coca-Cola 600 last weekend, Kyle Busch picked up where he left off in opening Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice on Friday (June 1) at Pocono Raceway.
Busch laid down a lap late in the session at 176.939 mph, more than four-tenths of a second ahead of Alex Bowman, who posted the second-quickest lap (175.490 mph). The No. 18 had the fastest lap throughout much of the session, before the No. 88 took the top spot for a short amount of time and then Busch blistered the field with his lap.
Clint Bowyer was third on the board (175.486 mph), while Kyle Larson (175.452 mph) and Kevin Harvick (175.278 mph) rounded out the top five.
Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Paul Menard and Martin Truex Jr. filled out the rest of the top 10.
Matt DiBenedetto turned 14 laps, the most of the 38 drivers that took a time. However, the No. 32 car was just 31st on the speed chart with a one-lap average.
Bowyer was the lone driver to make a 10-lap run with an average speed of 170.226 mph.
MENCS 1ST PRACTICE RESULTS POCONO
Dustin joined the Frontstretch team at the beginning of the 2016 season. 2020 marks his sixth full-time season covering the sport that he grew up loving. His dream was to one day be a NASCAR journalist, thus why he attended Ithaca College (Class of 2018) to earn a journalism degree. Since the ripe age of four, he knew he wanted to be a storyteller.