NSCS: Kasey Kahne Leads Saturday Morning STP 500 Practice at Martinsville Speedway

Kasey Kahne may have shocked some people in qualifying, but he is backing it up.

Kahne would lead the Saturday morning practice ahead of Sunday’s STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway, posting a quickest lap of 19.710 seconds. He looks to put a dismal start to his 2016 season in the rearview with a solid performance this weekend.

“It feels good,” he commented on Friday after qualifying second. “The car was really fast. The guys did a nice job in qualifying. I just kept getting better with my laps. We didn’t make any adjustments as the car was fine, I just got better with my laps. It was close. Defiantly a good starting spot. that was one of y goals today to help on pit road, and we were able to do that with a good effort. I feel we have a really good team on pit crew that can get as good pit stops as anybody, so looking forward to it.

Ryan Newman backed up his top-five qualifying effort, posting the second quickest time in practice. Newman has won at Martinsville previously, and has posted eight top-fives and and 13 top-10s in 28 starts.

Martin Truex Jr. was third quickest as he looks to bounce back after finishing outside of the top-20 last week due to contact with Joey Logano.

Brian Vickers was fourth as he subs for Tony Stewart once again this week. Vickers said earlier this week that Martinsville is one of his favorite tracks. Vickers grew up in Thomasville, North Carolina, just over an hour away from Martinsville.

Paul Menard rounded out the top-five ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Casey Mears, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin and Clint Bowyer.