Stewart-Haas Racing driver paces both sessions at Charlotte
RELATED: Final practice results | See all 43 cars at Charlotte
Kurt Busch topped final practice for Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 (6 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM) at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Busch led the 50-minute session with a fast lap of 188.653 mph. The driver of the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet also topped Saturday's earlier practice session.
Kasey Kahne placed second in the session at a speed of 187.052 mph. The driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet has four wins at Charlotte with three coming in the Coca-Cola 600.
Paul Menard (186.987 mph) was third, followed by Greg Biffle (186.942 mph) and polesitter Matt Kenseth (186.780 mph) rounded out the top five.
MORE: Kenseth starts on pole
Erik Jones spent the latter half of final practice logging laps in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Jones will be on standby for Kyle Busch on Sunday night in case he can't go the full distance. Busch is making his first points-paying start in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series since suffering a compound fracture of the right leg and a broken left foot in a crash in the NASCAR XFINITY Series opener at Daytona International Speedway in February. Jones made his Sprint Cup debut at Kansas Speedway two weeks ago; he also logged laps in relief of Denny Hamlin at Bristol Motor Speedway in April. The No. 18 Toyota was 17th in final practice.
The standby plan was mentioned on Jones' Twitter feed.
Sunday's 600-miler is the longest race of the season in the Sprint Cup Series.
Second practice | RELATED: Practice 2 results
Kurt Busch topped the first of Saturday's two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice sessions at Charlotte Motor Speedway for Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 (6 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM).
Busch paced the 55-minute practice session with a fast lap of 192.644 mph. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver has just one win at Charlotte, a Coca-Cola 600 victory in 2010.
Polesitter Matt Kenseth placed second in the session with a fast lap of 191.680 mph. Kenseth's first premier series win came in this race in 2000.
Jimmie Johnson (190.813 mph) came in third, followed by David Ragan (190.550 mph) with Brad Keselowski (190.496 mph) rounding out the top five.
Johnson is the defending race winner and has seven career wins at Charlotte, the most all-time. All three of Johnson's wins this season have come on intermediate tracks.
Ragan went for a spin off Turn 4 late in practice, making no contact with the wall but going through the grass. The driver of the No. 55 Toyota suffered no real damage to the car and is set to start seventh in Sunday's race.
Kyle Busch, who will be making his first points-paying Sprint Cup Series start of the season, finished the session sixth.
Points leader Kevin Harvick, who has finished in the top two in all four races at intermediate tracks, placed 30th on the chart.
AJ Allmendinger had his share of issues during the practice. The driver of the No. 47 appeared to scrape the wall and was fighting a loose car during the session in which he placed 33rd.