LOUDON, N.H — If practice fast can turn into Sunday fast, Kyle Larson could be on your short list of who wins the Bad Boy Off Road 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
The driver of the Target Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Chevrolet paced the first Saturday practice with a speed of 132.186 mph and finished off Happy Hour with a speed of 132.577 mph.
“We made some big improvements in happy hour,” said Larson. “I feel really good for the first 10 laps of a run then I fall off a little faster than everyone else.”
Larson’s 10-lap average in final practice was third fastest at 131.342 mph just behind Joe Gibbs Racing pole sitter Carl Edwards and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick.
The top-10 single lap speeds of Happy Hour were:
- Kyle Larson 132.577
- Denny Hamlin 132.549
- Kasey Kahne 132.489
- Carl Edwards 132.420
- Jimmie Johnson 132.255
- Martin Truex Jr. 132.250
- Matt Kenseth 132.222
- Kyle Busch 132.213
- Kevin Harvick 132.186
- Alex Bowman 132.071
Other Chase drivers on single lap speed in final practice.
11. Chase Elliott 132.048
12. Brad Keselowski 132.021
13. Joey Logano 131.902
14. Kurt Busch 131.865
15. Tony Stewart 131.792
18. Jamie McMurray 131.229
22. Austin Dillon 130.846
28. Chris Buescher 130.162a
Notes from practice:
Jimmie Johnson spent the first 10 minutes of the first practice practicing getting in and out of the pits following a speeding penalty last week at Chicago.
In final practice, the Hendrick Motorsports cars looked solid with all four Hendrick drivers, Johnson (fifth), Elliott (seventh), Kahne (eighth) and Alex Bowman (10th) on the list of 10-lap averages.
Johnson looked especially fast as he was one of the few Chevrolets who actually passed a Toyota in practice when Johnson passed Kyle Busch on the frontstretch.
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