NSCS: Kurt Busch Leads Final STP 500 Practice at Martinsville Speedway

At the end of the final practice for the STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway, it’d be Kurt Busch topping the charts with a lap of 19.502 seconds. Busch won this event last year and enters this race coming off of a pair of top-five finishes.

Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon were second and third, respectively. They’re both looking for their ninth career victory at Martinsville Speedway. Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman would round out the top-five.

Kasey Kahne was sixth quickest, followed by Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle. Biffle would make slight contact with the wall as a result of a spin during the session, but his Roush Fenway Racing team was able to fix it.

Alex Bowman also ran into problems during the session, losing power and slowly crawling to the garage. They also began their first bits of close quarter racing, running four-wide at one point, while Austin Dillon and Danica Patrick made contact going into Turn 3 after battling hard for the past couple laps in practice.

2015 NSCS STP 500 Final Practice Session Speeds

(i) Ineligible for Driver Points in this Series
# Denotes Rookie

Source: Timing and Scoring provided by NASCARMedia/NASCAR Statistics