Matt Kenseth Fastest in First Las Vegas Practice Session; Four Roush Drivers in Top-5

2003-04 Vegas winner was fastest in Friday's practice

Matt Kenseth, with a lap speed of 186.599 mph, was the fastest during the first Kobalt Tools 400 practice session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Second fastest and with a lap speed of 186.297 mph, was David Ragan, followed by Juan Pablo Montoya (185.957) who was third fastest, Carl Edwards (185.893) fourth fastest and Greg Biffle (185.675) was fifth fastest.

“Our Ford is really fast,” said Ragan. “Everybody has been working really hard and I think that is evident with Carl and Matt and Greg and some of the other Fords that unloaded fast. It makes life a lot easier when you all unload fast like that. I am really happy with our Ford.

“Even in the Nationwide practice I was watching and you hear everyone talking about the bumps in turn one and I have been trying to find a sweet spot where I could drive around them and I kind of got so pumped up that I got such a good run coming off of four that I didn’t really hit my marks getting into turn one.

“Our car has so much grip that I can get back to the throttle really early. We will make a couple of minor adjustments and try to go get a good qualifying lap for our UPS team.”

Rounding out the top-ten fastest in practice were Marcos Ambrose (185.624) who was sixth fastest, Tony Stewart (185.561) seventh, Regan Smith (185.446) eighth, Brad Keselowski (185.357) ninth and Joey Logano (185.287) was tenth fastest.

The teams will return to the track later this evening for their 3:40 PM scheduled qualifying session, and then again on Saturday for their final practice session, which is scheduled to run from 10:10 AM – 11:25 AM.

Saturday's practice will be critical to the outcome of the race because only one driver went longer than 10 consecutive laps in the first session signifying that most of the race day set-ups will be finalized in the final session.

Nevertheless, seeing Kenseth at the top of the charts in any practice is intriguing. He's usually not one to show blazing speed in practice.

Note: Jeff Gordon spun coming off turn four on his second lap out, but did not hit anything. Also, Travis Kvapil made slight contact with the wall but didn't do any damage.

LVMS Practice Results - Jayski.com