Three drivers who are still chasing their first win of 2014 set the pace during Friday afternoon’s practice for Sunday’s Duck Commander 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway. Happy Hour practice and qualifying take place Saturday.
Six-time and defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, who won at TMS last fall during the Chase for the Sprint Cup, recorded the fastest lap of 192.237 mph.
The next fastest were Greg Biffle (192.055) and Ryan Newman (191.564), followed by Daytona 500 winner and current Sprint Cup points leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. (191.327) and Brian Vickers (190.934).
Two significant mishaps occurred during the 110-minute practice.
First, David Ragan slid into the infield, with the splitter on his No. 34 catching in the grass, doing enough damage to the front end and undercarriage that the team will likely have to go to a backup car.
Another driver who will definitely have to go to a backup car is last week’s winner at Martinsville, Kurt Busch.
With less than 10 minutes remaining in the practice session, Busch was coming down the backstretch when it appeared his left rear tire blew out, sending him careening hard and nearly head-on into the retaining wall.
Busch was uninjured, but his car sustained heavy damage.
What made the wreck even harder to take for Busch is he had been the fifth-fastest speed up to that point during the session, and had suffered the problem on the 51st practice lap he had made around the 1.5-mile track.
The slowest driver on the track was JJ Yeley, who was the only driver that failed to crack 180 mph, recording a best of just 179.480 mph in only two laps during the session.
Here’s the entire practice speed chart:
1 Jimmie Johnson 193.237 mph
2 Greg Biffle 192.055
3 Ryan Newman 191.564
4 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 191.327
5 Brian Vickers 190.934
6 Jamie McMurray 190.950
7 Kurt Busch 190.590
8 Trevor Bayne 190.577
9 Paul Menard 190.564
10 Marcos Ambrose 190.308
11 Kevin Harvick 190.174
12 Kasey Kahne 190.034
13 Casey Mears 189.947
14 Tony Stewart 189.940
15 Denny Hamlin 189.720
16 Carl Edwards 189.553
17 Aric Almirola 189.467
18 Jeff Gordon 189.334
19 Austin Dillon 189.102
20 Kyle Busch 188.990
21 AJ Allmendinger 188.904
22 Clint Bowyer 188.785
23 Josh Wise 188.712
24 Dave Blaney 188.495
25 Michael McDowell 188.429
26 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 188.291
27 Danica Patrick 188.265
28 Martin Truex Jr. 188.147
29 Matt Kenseth 188.081
30 Joey Logano 187.624
31 Alex Bowman 187.441
32 Kyle Larson 187.279
33 Brad Keselowski 187.220
34 David Stremme 186.722
35 David Reutimann 186.458
36 David Ragan 186.303
37 David Gilliland 186.213
38 Joe Nemechek 185.727
39 Ryan Truex 185.134
40 Justin Allgaier 184.982
41 Landon Cassill 184.093
42 Travis Kvapil 183.836
43 Reed Sorenson 183.530
44 Michael Annett 183.505
45 Cole Whitt 183.380
46 Parker Kligerman 183.243
47 JJ Yeley 179.480
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