Spring winner Kyle Busch fastest in final Cup practice at Bristol

As the clock ticked down on the one-hour, 10-minute session, Busch went on a mock qualifying run and posted an average lap speed of 126.729 mph.

“Obviously, we’re kind of on a hot streak with Bristol. We love going there,” Busch said. “We’ll see what we can do, hopefully having a fast race car and doing what we normally do there, just try to stay out of trouble.

“It’s a tough place to stay out of trouble (and) hoping we can win three Cup races in a row for the first time there.”

In addition to his seven career Bristol wins, which is tops among active drivers, Busch has 10 top-five and 15 top-10s in 26 career starts.

Martin Truex Jr., who completed his mock run just before the flags waved to end the session, ended up second (126.312 mph). Aric Almirola was third (126.287 mph), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. fourth and Kevin Harvick completed the top-five.

“I thought our car was really good. To get a win here would be really cool,” Almirola said. “We have a lot of work to do but so far we’re off to a good start.”

About 30 minutes into the session, Darrell Wallace Jr. scrubbed the outside wall with his No. 43 Chevrolet. He continued on and no caution was displayed for the incident. He ended up 12th.

With a little over 15 minutes in the session, Kyle Larson scraped the wall, doing some damage to the right side of his No. 42 Chevrolet. He ended up 16th-fastest.

Larson did finish the session with the fastest average lap speed of those drivers who ran at least 10 consecutive laps. Jones and Stenhouse were second and third, respectively, in that category.

Cla	#	Driver	4506	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	47	15.141			126.729
2	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	54	15.191	0.050	0.050	126.312
3	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	65	15.194	0.053	0.003	126.287
4	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	57	15.210	0.069	0.016	126.154
5	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	46	15.239	0.098	0.029	125.914
6	20	Erik Jones	Toyota	42	15.256	0.115	0.017	125.773
7	88	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	61	15.294	0.153	0.038	125.461
8	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	61	15.306	0.165	0.012	125.363
9	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	44	15.343	0.202	0.037	125.060
10	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	38	15.348	0.207	0.005	125.020
11	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	53	15.352	0.211	0.004	124.987
12	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.	Chevrolet	57	15.376	0.235	0.024	124.792
13	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	63	15.378	0.237	0.002	124.776
14	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	64	15.379	0.238	0.001	124.768
15	95	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	47	15.400	0.259	0.021	124.597
16	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	92	15.426	0.285	0.026	124.387
17	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	97	15.433	0.292	0.007	124.331
18	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	49	15.438	0.297	0.005	124.291
19	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	50	15.439	0.298	0.001	124.283
20	21	Paul Menard	Ford	88	15.449	0.308	0.010	124.202
21	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	38	15.464	0.323	0.015	124.082
22	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	95	15.475	0.334	0.011	123.994
23	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	62	15.483	0.342	0.008	123.929
24	22	Joey Logano	Ford	93	15.485	0.344	0.002	123.913
25	38	David Ragan	Ford	63	15.501	0.360	0.016	123.786
26	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	79	15.510	0.369	0.009	123.714
27	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	65	15.519	0.378	0.009	123.642
28	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	82	15.549	0.408	0.030	123.403
29	96	Jesse Little	Toyota	16	15.597	0.456	0.048	123.024
30	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	29	15.598	0.457	0.001	123.016
31	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	91	15.610	0.469	0.012	122.921
32	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	43	15.624	0.483	0.014	122.811
33	15	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	65	15.683	0.542	0.059	122.349
34	72	Corey Lajoie	Chevrolet	40	15.752	0.611	0.069	121.813
35	7	J.J. Yeley	Chevrolet	17	15.761	0.620	0.009	121.744
36	23	Jones Blake	Toyota	26	15.829	0.688	0.068	121.221
37	52	B.J. McLeod	Chevrolet	8	15.843	0.702	0.014	121.113
38	66	Timmy Hill	Toyota	25	15.898	0.757	0.055	120.694
39	00	Landon Cassill	Chevrolet	59	15.932	0.791	0.034	120.437
40	51	Reed Sorenson	Chevrolet	9	15.954	0.813	0.022	120.271
41	99	Gray Gaulding	Chevrolet	22	15.964	0.823	0.010	120.195