Ryan Newman topped the leaderboard in Saturday’s second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Darlington Raceway at 171.698 mph in the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.
Right behind him was Chase Elliott in the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet at 171.512 mph.
RELATED: Practice 2 results | 10-lap averages
Rounding out the top five were Jimmie Johnson in the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Kyle Busch in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and Kurt Busch in the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Fusion.
Defending winner Denny Hamlin, who topped the leaderboard in first practice, was 15th in second practice at 168.573 mph.
Aric Almirola tagged the wall in this session, taking significant damage to his No. 10 Ford Fusion. He placed 11th on the leaderboard at 169.187 mph.
The next on-track activity is Busch Pole Qualifying on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App.
HAMLIN TOPS OPENING PRACTICE
Defending Darlington winner Denny Hamlin topped the leaderboard in Friday’s first practice for the Bojangles’ Southern 500 after he recorded a lap at 172.287 mph.
Hamlin was fastest in his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Toyota in the opening practice session that served as the initial preparation for Sunday’s iconic throwback race (6 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
RELATED: First practice results
Kyle Larson was second-fastest in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, logging a lap at 172.034 mph.
Brad Keselowski in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford (171.998 mph), Alex Bowman in the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet (171.980 mph) and Ryan Newman in the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet (171.926 mph) rounded out the top five. Bowman currently holds the final provisional playoff spot with two regular-season races left and Newman is among the drivers on the outside looking in.
The No. 1 Chevrolet of Jamie McMurray began smoking about eight minutes into the session with an apparent engine failure. McMurray will start at the rear of the field if he must change the engine on his car.
“Honestly, I didn’t even realize the engine was blowing up,” McMurray told NBCSN. “But then obviously as the oil started pouring out, I caught on.”
WATCH: McMurray’s engine blows
The practice session was extended five minutes to account for the lengthy track cleanup because of the oil.
Later, with about 11 minutes left in the practice session, Erik Jones spun his No. 20 JGR Toyota as he attempted to get on pit road. The car was not make contact with anything and was not damaged.
Among those serving practice holds of 15 minutes at the end of the first practice were: No. 38 of David Ragan, No. 66 of Timmy Hill and No. 99 of Derrike Cope for being late to pre-race inspection; and No. 18 of Kyle Busch for failing pre-race inspection at Bristol twice. The No. 3 of Austin Dillon served a 30-minute practice hold for failing pre-race inspection at Bristol three times.