RELATED: Full practice results
Piloting his No. 2 Team Penske Ford at 175.880 mph, Brad Keselowski slid into the top position on the leaderboard with less than 10 minutes remaining Friday’s final practice session at Darlington Raceway.
Opening practice leader Greg Biffle found speed in the final minutes of Friday’s final practice, propelling his No. 16 Ford around the South Carolina speedway at 175.729 mph for the second position.
Like many of the other drivers in the field, third-fastest Kurt Busch — who was second on the leaderboard in the opening session — used the final minutes of the 115-minute practice to make a mock qualifying run in his No. 41 Chevrolet (175.723 mph).
A late run also benefited Paul Menard, who inherited the fourth position on the leaderboard with the help of a fast lap of 175.484 mph from his No. 27 Richard Childress Racing car. His teammate Austin Dillon rounded out the top five, getting a top speed of 175.453 mph out of his No. 3 ride.
Denny Hamlin remained atop the leaderboard for the majority of the final session. However, when drivers switched to qualifying trim in the final laps, he ended up 14th by the time the red flag waved to the signal the end of practice.
“The Track Too Tough to Tame” lived up to its name in the final minutes for reigning race winner Kevin Harvick, who smacked the wall off Turn 2 late in the session in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet. Harvick ranked 21st on the leaderboard.
After making contact with the wall midway through the second practice session, Kyle Busch and the No. 18 team deferred to a back-up car. The No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota came up 35th on the leaderboard after the 115-minute session.
Coors Light Pole Qualifying is set for Saturday at 1:45 p.m. ET on NBCSN.
RELATED: Full practice results
Greg Biffle topped the opening NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice at Darlington Raceway for Sunday’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 (7 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Biffle paced the 115-minute practice with a fast lap of 176.201 mph at the 1.366-mile track in South Carolina. The Roush Fenway Racing driver has two wins in 14 starts at the “Lady in Black” and is currently on the outside of the Chase Grid with two races left in the regular season.
Stewart-Haas Racing dominated the leaderboard behind Biffle with Kurt Busch (175.842 mph), Tony Stewart (175.710 mph) and Kevin Harvick (175.654 mph) coming in second through fourth in the session. Harvick is the defending race winner at Darlington. Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Carl Edwards (175.647 mph) rounded out the top five.
Friday’s practice sessions provided the drivers with significant time with the low downforce package. This is the second race of the season to use that particular rules package as it was also used at Kentucky in July.
Austin Dillon “earned” a Darlington stripe early in opening practice when he hit the wall off of Turn 2 and had significant damage to the right side of his No. 3 Chevrolet. The team worked to fix the damage on his car instead of bringing out the backup and got him back out on track toward the end of the session. Brett Moffitt also got a Darlington stripe early in the practice session.
Chase Elliott, who will be attempting to make his fifth Sprint Cup start of the season, brushed the wall about a half hour into practice. Trevor Bayne also got into the wall during the practice session.
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