Bowyer crashes in final practice session at Lowe's

CONCORD, N.C. -- Final practice at Lowe's Motor Speedway for Saturday night's Bank of America 500 was highlighted by struggles for Chase drivers Clint Bowyer and Matt Kenseth.

Bowyer's No. 07 Chevrolet lost control and crashed in Turn 2. The team made repairs and was able to make improvements.

Sam Hornish Jr. wasn't as lucky. With only about 20 minutes left in the practice session Friday, the driver of the No. 77 Dodge crashed after he said his car stepped out while he was running at the top of the racetrack. His team was forced to roll out a backup car, but time did not allow for additional practice laps on that car.

"We will just make adjustments throughout the day [Saturday], it's a long race," said Hornish, whose career-best finish, 13th, came earlier this season at Lowe's.

Bowyer struggled throughout practice and finally crashed when his "rear end tried to pass the front end." The No. 07 Chevrolet finished the session near the bottom on the speed chart at 38th-quickest.

"We didn't wreck it all that bad but we are just way far off. It's frustrating to be here for two days and be that far off. Thank God we didn't tear it up too bad. We'll be able to keep our starting spot. We need to lean on our teammates and see if we can learn something there," said Bowyer, who starts Saturday's race in the fifth spot.

Chase driver Kyle Busch made a brush with the wall during practice causing only cosmetic damage to the right rear of his special pink car with matching uniform.

"I like it. I think it's pretty cool," Busch said of his partnership with the Susan G. Komen Foundation for breast cancer awareness month. "It will be cool. I wanted the whole uniform to be the bright pink and then do the accents in black, but they didn't have enough material. I tried."

Kenseth was 17th-fastest in practice as he battled an ill-handling racecar, but his teammate Carl Edwards was second-quickest in the final practice session with a lap time of 29.523 seconds (182.908 mph). Jimmie Johnson was fastest with a lap time of 29.507 seconds (183.007 mph).

Speeds
• Practice 1 | Practice 2