Coors Light Pole winner, teammate Edwards go 1-2 in both sessions
RELATED: Practice 2 results | Final practice results
Denny Hamlin kept his car at the top of the speed charts in Saturday’s final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice, a session cut short by a significant fluid leak at Dover International Speedway.
Hamlin pushed his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota to a best lap of 156.087 mph on the 1-mile concrete track. Hamlin also led Saturday’s early practice and secured the first starting spot with the Coors Light Pole Award in Friday’s qualifying.
As in Saturday’s early session, Hamlin’s JGR teammate Carl Edwards was second-fastest in the No. 19 Toyota with a lap of 155.602 mph. Paul Menard was third-best at 155.206 mph in the Richard Childress Racing No. 27 Chevrolet.
Matt Kenseth was fourth-fastest and Kyle Busch fifth as Joe Gibbs Racing entries claimed four of the top five spots on the practice leaderboard. Jimmie Johnson, a nine-time Dover winner, logged the sixth-best lap ahead of Sunday’s FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks (1 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM).
The final session was originally scheduled for 50 minutes, but a major fluid leak from the rear of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet oiled a large portion of the track. Practice was stopped for approximately 13 minutes for extensive clean-up. Race officials added five minutes to the end of the session to make up for the red flag.
Defending Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick, the standings leader, was seventh-fastest in the final tune-up in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet.
Hamlin stays the course in practice 2
Denny Hamlin continued his steady show of speed at Dover International Speedway, leading Saturday morning’s next-to-last NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice.
Hamlin wheeled the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota to a best lap of 156.331 mph on the 1-mile concrete layout. A day earlier, he landed the Coors Light Pole Award, clinching the No. 1 starting spot for Sunday’s FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks (1 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM).
Though Hamlin has three pole positions for the last six Dover events, he has yet to score a Sprint Cup victory at the Monster Mile. Hamlin already has wins in hand this season at Martinsville Speedway and in the non-points NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race.
Carl Edwards, a teammate of Hamlin’s at JGR and last weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 winner, clinched the second spot on the practice leaderboard with a 156.325-mph lap. His best time in the No. 19 Toyota was just one-thousandth of a second slower than Hamlin’s chart-topping lap.
Kurt Busch was third-fastest at 155.736 mph in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 41 Chevrolet. Jimmie Johnson, a nine-time Dover winner in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevy, was fourth-fastest at 155.723 mph. David Ragan, prepping for his third start in the Michael Waltrip Racing No. 55 Toyota, completed the top five at 155.602 mph.
Defending Sprint Cup champion and current points leader Kevin Harvick was eighth-fastest in the 50-minute session.
Final Sprint Cup practice is scheduled for 1-1:50 p.m. ET (FOX Sports 1).