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Toyotas Dominate Opening Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Practice For Brickyard 400
- Updated: July 22, 2017
Denny Hamlin, quickest in opening practice for the 2017 Brickyard 400. [John Wiedemann Photo]
By Dan Margetta
Speedway, Ind., July 22 — Toyota drivers occupied the top three spots on the speed charts following the opening Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice for the Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with Denny Hamlin ending the session as the fastest followed by Martin Truex Jr. and Matt Kenseth.
Hamlin’s top lap speed of 187.414 mph was nearly two mph faster than Truex and Kenseth who timed in at 185.559 mph and 185.200 mph respectively, and afterwards Hamlin explained that was due to his team choosing to set their car up for the session in qualifying trim rather than race trim.
“We spent most of the practice in qualifying trim because I think qualifying is a very big key,” Hamlin said afterwards, “If you look at the winners here, most of them have started up front so it’s important to start your day off being fast and being up there and that’s what we focused on today.”
“In the next practice we’ll focus on race trim so we know it’s very hard to pass here, it’s always been and in the past three or four years it’s been extremely difficult.”
“The good news is there are stages to break things up and it will be interesting to see how the race plays out this year because of the stages, “ Hamlin continued, referring to the new stage racing format implemented for the 2017 season, “It will definitely be a different race than what we’re used to seeing in the past years where one car can actually check out and lead all the laps. I don’t necessarily see that being that case this weekend because there will be so many different strategies that could be played out. It will allow guys that are running in the middle or back to pit and take tires and make a charge through the field.”
“I wouldn’t read too much into it now,” Hamlin said, “The next practice will be a good indication as other guys switch into qualifying mode and we go into race mode but it did look like all our cars (Toyotas) are fast.”
Chevrolet drivers Kasey Kahne and Kyle Larson ended the session in fourth and fifth on the charts at 185.151 mph and 185.002 mph respectively. Kyle Busch was sixth fastest in his Toyota ahead of Chevrolet’s Dale Earnhardt Jr. in seventh. Ryan Blaney was the fastest Ford driver in the eighth position while fellow Ford drivers Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski completed the top ten.