Jimmie Johnson, Greg Biffle, Ryan Newman and Dale Earnhardt Jr. fastest in Friday Sprint Cup practice - MotorSportsTalk

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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INDIANAPOLIS — The first Indy 500 victory for Josef Newgarden also was the richest in race history from a record 2023 purse of just more than $17 million.

The two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion, who continued his celebration Monday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earned $3.666 million for winning the 107th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The purse and winner’s share both are the largest in the history of the Indianapolis 500.

It’s the second consecutive year that the Indy 500 purse set a record after the 2022 Indy 500 became the first to crack the $16 million mark (nearly doubling the 2021 purse that offered a purse of $8,854,565 after a crowd limited to 135,000 because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

The average payout for IndyCar drivers was $500,600 (exceeding last year’s average of $485,000).

Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske, whose team also fields Newgarden’s No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet, had made raising purses a priority since buying the track in 2020. But Penske but was unable to post big money purses until the race returned to full capacity grandstands last year.

The largest Indy 500 purse before this year was $14.4 million for the 2008 Indy 500 won by Scott Dixon (whose share was $2,988,065). Ericsson’s haul made him the second Indy 500 winner to top $3 million (2009 winner Helio Castroneves won $3,048,005.

Runner-up Marcus Ericsson won $1.043 million after falling short by 0.0974 seconds in the fourth-closest finish in Indy 500 history.

The 107th Indy 500 drew a crowd of at least 330,000 that was the largest since the sellout for the 100th running in 2016, and the second-largest in more than two decades, according to track officials.

“This is the greatest race in the world, and it was an especially monumental Month of May featuring packed grandstands and intense on-track action,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said in a release. “Now, we have the best end card possible for the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500: a record-breaking purse for the history books.”

Benjamin Pedersen was named the Indy 500 rookie of the year, earning a $50,000 bonus.

The race’s purse is determined through contingency and special awards from IMS and IndyCar. The awards were presented Monday night in the annual Indy 500 Victory Celebration at the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis.

The payouts for the 107th Indy 500:

1. Josef Newgarden, $3,666,000
2. Marcus Ericsson, $1,043,000
3. Santino Ferrucci, $481,800
4. Alex Palou, $801,500
5. Alexander Rossi, $574,000
6. Scott Dixon, $582,000
7. Takuma Sato, $217,300
8. Conor Daly, $512,000
9. Colton Herta, $506,500
10. Rinus VeeKay, $556,500
11. Ryan Hunter‐Reay, $145,500
12. Callum Ilott, $495,500
13. Devlin DeFrancesco, $482,000
14. Scott McLaughlin, $485,000
15. Helio Castroneves, $481,500
16. Tony Kanaan, $105,000
17. Marco Andretti, $102,000
18. Jack Harvey, $472,000
19. Christian Lundgaard, $467,500
20. Ed Carpenter, $102,000
21. Benjamin Pedersen (R), $215,300
22. Graham Rahal, $565,500*
23. Will Power, $488,000
24. Pato O’Ward, $516,500
25. Simon Pagenaud, $465,500
26. Agustín Canapino (R), $156,300
27. Felix Rosenqvist, $278,300
28. Kyle Kirkwood, $465,500
29. David Malukas, $462,000
30. Romain Grosjean, $462,000
31. Sting Ray Robb (R), $463,000
32. RC Enerson (R), $103,000
33. Katherine Legge, $102,000

*–Broken down between two teams, $460,000 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, $105,500 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports