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Five-time Martinsville winner Denny Hamlin surged to the top of the leaderboard in the waning seconds of Friday’s opening Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Martinsville Speedway. Hamlin propelled his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota around the paperclip oval at 95.256 mph to secure the top spot.
Hamlin’s JGR teammate and reigning race winner Kyle Busch was next on the speed charts, his No. 18 Toyota hitting 95.06 mph.
Phoenix winner Ryan Newman was third-fastest in his No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet (94.908 mph), while Chip Ganassi Racing’s Jamie McMurray (94.889 mph) and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Clint Bowyer (94.889 mph) rounded out the top five, respectively.
The opening session was pushed from 11:30 a.m. to a noon ET start time due to early rain and track-drying efforts. The cars rolled onto the track about 12:15 p.m. ET, 15 minutes into the rescheduled window.
Daniel Suarez signaled the red flag when his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota hit the wall in Turn 3, sustaining significant damage to the rear of the car. The team elected to bring out the backup car.
Smoke from the left-front tire of Ty Dillon’s No. 13 Chevrolet brought out the caution briefly during the abbreviated session.
Because track time for Friday remains at a premium with an uncertain weather forecast, practice hold penalties for four teams were deferred. NASCAR officials said enforcement of those penalties would come at a later time in the race weekend.
The cars of Ryan Blaney and Jeffrey Earnhardt were docked 15 minutes of practice for being late to pre-qualifying inspection last weekend at Auto Club Speedway. Earnhardt drew another 15-minute penalty, joining Trevor Bayne and Denny Hamlin among those failing pre-race inspection last weekend.
Earnhardt’s Circle Sport-TMG No. 33 team opted to serve one penalty in opening practice, deferring the other to a later session.
The Monster Energy Series is scheduled to be back on track at 5:05 p.m. ET for Coors Light Pole qualifying (FS1).