Race Weekend Central

Kyle Busch Tops Opening Practice at New Hampshire

It didn’t take long for the fall winner at New Hampshire Motor Speedway to find the top of the scoring pylon in opening Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice, as Kyle Busch led the way at 134.292 mph, more than one-tenth of a second ahead of second fastest.

Busch turned six laps in the lone practice ahead of Friday’s qualifying session. Meanwhile, he had a familiar foe just behind in second, as Kyle Larson turned a lap of 133.788 mph.

A pair of Joe Gibbs Racing teammates rounded out the next two spots with defending winner Denny Hamlin (third, 133.759 mph) and Erik Jones (fourth, 133.628 mph). Ryan Blaney rounded out the top five (133.469 mph).

Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Alex Bowman, Martin Truex Jr. and Kurt Busch completed the top 10.

Joey Logano and Chris Buescher, mired down in 15th and 26th on the board, respectively, turned the most laps with 20. Just 13 of the 37 drivers in the field ran at least 10 laps in the session. Blake Jones, who is making his Cup debut was nearly three seconds off the pace.

Qualifying for the Foxwoods Resort 301 is slated to get underway at 4:45 p.m. ET. Truex 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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