Final practice results: Jeff Gordon fastest title contender at Homestead-Miami Speedway
The preliminaries are over: Time to decide the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.
Practice for the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway concluded with Saturday afternoon’s final 50-minute Happy Hour session. Despite dodgy weather -- it rained on an off all morning -- 43 drivers were able to get on the South Florida track one last time before Sunday’s race.
Joey Logano, who has won a series-high six races in 2015 but isn’t in the title hunt, was fastest in Happy Hour, with a best lap of 175.404 miles per hour in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford.
Logano’s best lap was enough to top Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kasey Kahne and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Carl Edwards was fourth, followed by Kurt Busch.
Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon and Martin Truex Jr. will race for the championship Sunday at Homestead. Whoever has the best finish of the four will be crowned the champion.
During Happy Hour, Gordon was ninth, which was best of the four title hopefuls. Truex was right behind him in 10th, with Kyle Busch 17th and Harvick all the way back in 26th. Gordon was fastest in 10 consecutive-lap average speed.
One concerning moment in the session came in the first 15 minutes, when David Ragan had a flat left-rear tire. That’s the same problem that happened to a handful of drivers two weeks ago at Texas Motor Speedway, where the same tires were used.
Take a look at the full practice results here.
