Race Weekend Central

Kevin Harvick Tops Opening Practice at Pocono

From the time Kevin Harvick went out on the racetrack, the No. 4 car was the fastest racecar at Pocono Raceway in Saturday’s opening session.

Harvick turned a lap of 174,965 mph, .010 seconds ahead of Daytona winner Erik Jones, who jumped to second the scoring pylon with a few minutes to spare in the session. The No. 20 car ended practice at 174.931 mph.

June polesitter at Pocono, Ryan Blaney, was third quickest (174.402 mph), while Denny Hamlin (173.826 mph) and Clint Bowyer (173.404 mph) rounded out the top five.

William Byron, Kyle Busch, Daniel Suarez, Martin Truex Jr. and Chase Elliott filled the rest of the top 10. All four Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas were among the fast 10.

Former Pocono winners Joey Logano and Jimmie Johnson were just outside the top 10, while Brad Keselowski ended the session 18th, after facing electrical problems for much of the practice. The No. 2 car turned nine laps in the 50-minute practice.

The only stoppage in the practice was just over 10 minutes in when JJ Yeley went for a loop coming out of the Tunnel Turn. The No. 23 car finished the session 34th out of 39.

Alex Bowman finished the practice with 22 timed laps, the most in the session. He was 19th on overall one-lap speed.

Final practice for the Gander Outdoors 400 will begin at 11:40 a.m. ET, with qualifying beginning shortly after 4 p.m. ET.

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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