Ryan Newman's team is considering changing engines for Sunday's 600-mile event. Credit: Rusty Jarret/Getty Images

Newman leads practice, but might change motor

Considering he obliterated the former track record Thursday, Ryan Newman's qualifying setup at Lowe's Motor Speedway is obviously stellar. And considering he paced Happy Hour practice, it seems his race setup ain't so bad, either.

Ryan Newman Credit: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

Problem is, his engine is suspect.

It didn't blow, but according to a team spokesperson, there are problems. A final decision on whether or not to change motors won't be made until Sunday.

Newman's 29.227-second lap (184.761 mph) bested Jimmie Johnson's effort by less than a tenth of a second in a practice that saw three Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets in the top-five.

Joining Johnson -- the defending Coca-Cola 600 champion and current series points leader - in the top-five from the HMS stable were Kyle Busch in third and Brian Vickers in fifth.

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"We struggled a little bit with a little loose condition," Busch said. "We've got a really good car. We made a couple last minute changes just to see what it'd give us for race conditions. We're really looking forward to the race tomorrow night.

"We brought our second-best car to the all-star race and first-best this weekend. We were really tight last week, so we tried some things to loosen it up to get more turnability."

Travis Kvapil was fourth, while Kasey Kahne was sixth, Greg Biffle seventh and Elliott Sadler, Johnny Sauter and Ricky Rudd rounded out the top-10.

Coca-Cola 600 Happy Hour Speeds 2nd Practice Speeds 1st Practice Speeds Lineup

Mark Martin, who won the Nextel All-Star Challenge last weekend, was 14th in Happy Hour, a slight drop from his 10th-place rank in the early practice, which Johnson paced at 185.414 mph.

Sadler was second in the opening practice, some three-hundredths of a second behind Johnson. Newman was third, Kahne fourth and Biffle fifth.

Matt Kenseth posted the seventh-fastest time in the morning session, but wrecked at the outset of Happy Hour.

Just minutes into the second practice session, Kenseth was driving through Turn 2 on the apron and spun up the racetrack in front of oncoming traffic.

Several cars, including those driven by Dale Jarrett and Casey Mears, just missed him as he backed his Ford into the outside wall.

"I just spun out getting up on the track trying to get some speed," Kenseth explained.

He won't require a backup machine, and will start a LMS career-best third Sunday evening.

"I'm not worried about it getting fixed," Kenseth said. "I didn't hurt the frame or anything serious. It's mostly just body work, so they'll get it fixed and hopefully I'll be smarter tomorrow.

"We're starting third and this is the best running car we have in our stable now. To get the backup out, we still wouldn't have gotten any practice by the time we got it through tech and ready to run, so we'll just work on this.

"It's just some body damage. I think they can fix it and it'll be fine."