Complete results from Monster Energy Series Practice No. 2 at Bristol
BRISTOL, Tenn. -- With the rain holding off – at least for the time being – the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series was able to hold an early-morning practice Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway.
It was the second practice overall for Sunday’s Food City 500 (live on FOX, with pre-race coverage starting at 1:30 p.m. ET), and it was the first of two scheduled Saturday practices.
Kyle Busch was fastest in Saturday’s session, turning a top lap at 128.865 miles per hour.
After being fastest in Friday’s lone practice session, Cup rookie Erik Jones posted the the second-fastest lap in Saturday’s morning outing at 128.649 mph.
Denny Hamlin (128.176 mph), Kevin Harvick (128.091 mph) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (128.005 mph) rounded out the top five on the speed chart.
The session did not go as planned for Kyle Larson or Ricky Stenhouse Jr., both of whom spun out, doing damage to their cars. Stenhouse did more damage to his No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford after hitting the outside wall, while Larson was able to limit the damage to his car with a nice save that resulted in him barely brushing the outside wall.
“I had just been really loose and just got down in the corner and it took off,” Stenhouse said. “I thought I saved it and just got the right-rear in the wall.”
After first announcing that he would go to a backup car for Sunday’s race, Stenhouse’s team reversed course. They said they were expecting rain to wash out Saturday’s practice, so they would use the extra time they expected to have to try to fix Stenhouse’s primary car instead.
The rain never came before the second practice was held, but Stenhouse's team was able to get his primary car repaired in time to make some laps in that session.
Larson was trying to test the outside line at the .526-mile late in practice when he lost control of his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. Notorious for running a higher line than most of his fellow Cup competitors, Larson declared afterward that “the upper groove is not that far from coming in.”
See below for complete results from Saturday morning's practice.
