Photo Credit: Noel Lanier
Severe thunderstorms put an immediate halt to this morning’s Sprint Cup Series practice at Kentucky Speedway but not before Denny Hamlin put his No.11 FedEx Toyota on top of the speed charts.
Hamlin ran a quick lap of 28.680 seconds (188.285 MPH). Hamlin’s gap to second place Jimmie Johnson was .025 seconds. However Johnson’s recent run of bad luck continued just prior to the red flag for weather when his No.48 Lowe’s Chevrolet hit the wall forcing the six time champion to a backup car.
“I just got wide, and evidently the track is dirty wide,” said Johnson, who is seeking his first victory at Kentucky in Saturday’s Quaker State 400. “I didn’t have anything go wrong. I just got wide and the car just started going straight and it wouldn’t turn. I was in the marbles. I couldn’t see the line where the track was clean and dirty, and it just kept going straight and straight and straight and hit the wall.”
Kevin Harvick was third followed by: Ty Dillon and Kyle Larson. Chase Elliott, Jamie McMurray, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rounded out the top ten.
Notables include: Brad Keselowski 12th, Joey Logano 13th, Martin Truex Jr. 15th, Ryan Blaney 16th, Austin Dillon 17th, Kasey Kahne 19th, Matt Kenseth 25th, Kyle Busch 26th, Tony Stewart 28th, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. 29th.
NASCAR has yet to announce a revised schedule for on track activities for the remainder of the day and night.
