NSCS: Matt Kenseth Tops Auto Club 400 Final Practice

In the final practice ahead of the Auto Club 400, Matt Kenseth would top the speed chart with a lap of 38.831 seconds.

After showing speed with no results the first three weeks of the schedule, Kenseth is coming off of a solid performance at Phoenix International Raceway where he finished seventh.

Carl Edwards, meanwhile, was second quickest in practice, just like he was at Phoenix in finishing just one hundreth of a second behind Kevin Harvick.

Ryan Blaney was third quickest as he looks for his third straight top-10 finish, followed by Joey Logano and Aric Almirola.

Pole sitter Austin Dillon was sixth quickest, followed by Martin Truex Jr., Jamie McMurray, Kasey Kahne and Ryan Newman.

With 24 minutes remaining in final practice ahead of Sunday’s Auto Club 400, Kyle Larson and Greg Biffle would end up tangled together. Larson would get loose off of turn four, checking up a little in the process. Biffle didn’t notice Larson checking up quick enough, and would run into the back of Larson. The result was rear-end damage for Larson and front-end damage for Biffle. Neither driver would go to a backup car, making the decision to repair their racecars instead.

“I was running decent laps on the top and just got loose there, and kind of corrected it and was fine, barely hit the wall, and I slowed down so much that the 16 (Biffle) caught me on the exit off the corner and got into me,” Larson stated. “It’s just disappointing that it happened. I apologize to Greg Biffle for that. I hate it for the guys that have to work on the cars.”

Biffle commented afterward that the gap between himself and Larson closed quicker than he expected with being on new tires versus Larson on old tires.

“I was kind of looking at my mark on the wall and on the race track, and he wrecked in front of me, and I just couldn’t get stopped,” he said. “There wasn’t anywhere for me to go.  The groove is right up against the fence, and I was going probably 15-20 miles an hour faster than he was.  By the time I saw him sideways I was catching him so fast that I didn’t know what happened.”