Edwards Fast Early Lap Holds On To Be Quickest in Pocono's First Practice

Edwards topped the charts in the first practice session

Carl Edwards, with a lap speed of 167.729 mph, posted the fastest lap during the first practice session at Pocono Raceway.

Paul Menard was second fastest with a lap speed of 167.648 mph, and was followed by Jimmie Johnson (167.454) who was third fastest, Tony Stewart (167.264) fourth fastest and Kurt Busch (166.728) was the fifth fastest.

Rounding out the top-ten fastest were Ryan Newman (166.725), Brad Keselowski (166.636), Juan Pablo Montoya (166.392), Jeff Gordon (166.334) and Denny Hamlin (166.291).

Only two drivers ran more than 10 consecutive laps -- Montoya and Keselowski -- during the first session. Most all of the top times were done in race trim and done on the very first lap they ran. The exceptions were Stewart and Newman who put qualifying trim late in the session to crack the top-10.

“Happy Hour” for the teams is scheduled to run from 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM (EDT) this afternoon, and then the teams will return Saturday morning for their 11:10 AM (EDT) scheduled qualifying session.

Top-5 - 1st Pocono Practice:
#99-Edwards 167.729
#27-Menard 167.648
#48-Johnson 167.454
#14-Stewart 166.769
#22-Busch 166.728
slowest: #7-Wimmer 159.552 & #50-Bell 160.448
Note: Scott Wimmer is in the #7 Robby Gordon Motorsports Dodge and Bliss is in the #32.
This session will set the qualifying order for Saturday's qualifying, with slowest out first and fastest out last, all cars, the field is not separated by top-35 in owners points anymore.

Practice 1 Speeds