Kenseth Fastest in Final Vegas Practice, But Edwards, Biffle and Busch Look Better

By Micah Roberts
VegasInsider.com

Kenseth fastest in both practices and qualifying

The final practice session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway -- in preparation for Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 400 -- was and hour and 15 minutes long, but it only took the first three minutes to decide who was fastest on the day as Matt Kenseth laid down an early lap of 184.112 that no one could top. Kenseth is definitely fast, but as the temperature got hotter by the minutes, it made it tougher for anyone to top his speed.

The standouts of the session based on average speeds and laps run were Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart who put in four of the top five best averages. Kenseth finished sixth best on averages while A.J. Allmendinger, Martin Truex Jr and David Ruetimann also impressed.

The surprise of the session was the lack of speed shown by any of the ECR engines where drivers like Juan Pablo Montoya, Jamie McMurray, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer all struggled. The top performer of the crew, united by their engines, was Paul Menard who was fourth best in average speeds.

Two of the race favorites had mixed results with Jimmie Johnson 15th fastest with teammate Jeff Gordon coming in at 21st.

Top-5 Practice Speeds
#17-Kenseth 184.112
#18-Busch 183.717
#39-Newman 183.680
#99-Edwards 183.630
#16-Biffle 183.511
slowest: #66-McDowell 176.603 & #38-Kvapil 176.517
notes: #09-Elliott spun late but did not hit anything.

Final Practice Speeds