Kurt Busch dominates second Phoenix practice session

Kurt Busch won at Phoenix in 2005 in dominating fashion.

It's pretty simple for Kurt Busch this week at Phoenix. He basically has to win to advance to the Championship 4 at Homestead and judging by his dominant performance in Saturday's early practice session, he looks to be the driver to beat.

Busch laid down the fastest lap of the session at 139.627 mph on the 34th of 47 laps runs. That fast lap also began what would be the best 10-consecutive lap average among the 28 drivers that ran as many in a row.

He almost has the same dominant look that he did at Richmond in April where he led 291 laps en route to the win. It's no coincidence that he's using that same Richmond car this week, which also finished fifth in the March Phoenix race.

Carl Edwards was second fastest in the session at 139.260 mph followed by Kyle Larson (139.152), Kevin Harvick (139.147) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (139.028). Harvick is looking for his eighth Phoenix win and fifth straight.

Sunday’s pole-sitter, Jimmie Johnson (138.878 MPH) was sixth-fastest, followed by Denny Hamlin (138.696). Martin Truex Jr. and Joey Logano (with the identical lap speed of 138.680 MPH) were eighth and ninth fastest respectively, and AJ Allmendinger (138.398) rounded out the top-10.

Logano, in a desperate spot like Kurt Busch, didn't have the look of a real contender during the session.

Final practice for the teams will be later this afternoon from 2:30 p.m. – 3:20 p.m.

Practice 2 Speeds

Happy Hour Speeds