Coming off a sixth-place finish at Pocono Raceway, Ryan Blaney led the way in opening Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Michigan International Speedway, topping 202 mph.
Blaney drove the No. 12 Ford to a lap of 202.617 mph, more than one-tenth of a second ahead of Kyle Busch, who was second on the chart (201.935 mph). Blaney is looking to win consecutive poles for the first time in his career.
Michigan native Brad Keselowski was third on the board (201.867 mph), while Kevin Harvick (201.478 mph) and Chase Elliott (201.134 mph) rounded out the top five.
Five Fords rounded out the remainder of the top 10 with Kurt Busch, Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard, Aric Almirola and Joey Logano filling those positions.
Last weekends winner Martin Truex Jr. was 11th on the board, and the winner of the past three races at Michigan, Kyle Larson, was 16th on one-lap speed.
Just seven cars ran more than 10 laps in the practice session, and Bowyer was the lone driver do make a 10-lap run (195.986 mph). Both he and Landon Cassill ran 14 laps, the most in the 50-minute practice.
Qualifying for Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 will begin at 4:10 p.m. ET. Larson is the defending pole winner.
About the author
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.
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