RELATED: Practice 1 results
Brian Vickers topped the leaderboard in Friday’s opening NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice at Martinsville Speedway, wheeling his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet at 97.182 mph. Vickers is temporarily filling in for the injured Tony Stewart.
Right behind him was reigning race winner Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, clocking in at 97.108 mph.
Rounding out the top five were Joey Logano in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford (97.088 mph), Ryan Newman in the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet (97.053 mph) and Kyle Larson in the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet (97.023 mph).
Series points leader Kevin Harvick was 17th-fastest with a speed of 96.381 mph in the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet.
With rain in the forecast, many drivers began — rather than ended — practice in qualifying trim. If today’s qualifying session were to get rained out, the starting lineup would be set by practice times.
Trevor Bayne spun and smacked the wall with less than a minute remaining in the 80-minute session and sustained significant damage to the No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford. He will resort to a backup car.
“In qualifying trim I thought our car drove good, it handled good, but I was really lagging in the braking zones,” Bayne said. “We were giving up two to three-tenths into both corners and I tried to just push the braking zone a little bit more and it started wheel-hopping really bad. There was nothing I could do about it. Once it started bouncing I tried to save it and once it got backwards stood in the gas and it just backed in.
“The back-up car will be good. I hate that we worked on that one in race trim and I tore it up, but I just feel really bad about it. I think this might be the first one I’ve got to for a back-up in practice, but they’ll get it ready for qualifying.”
The Sprint Cup Series returns to the track at 4:15 p.m. ET for Coors Light Pole Qualifying (FS1).