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Posted 04/20/2012 at 03:36 PM
Kyle Busch laid down the fastest lap in the first of two Friday practice session at Kansas Speedway in preparation for Sunday’s STP 400. Busch gained the top speed of 173.728 mph in the last half of the 80 minute session topping the speed Carl Edwards (172.900) set on his first lap of the session.
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Kasey Kahne was third fastest (172.546) followed by Landon Cassill (172.469) and Dale Earnhardt Jr (172.469) to round out the quickest top-5.
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There was a feeling throughout the garages that not every driver was putting in their best effort because it would be more rewarding to have a slower time in this first session. The order of finish from the first practice will determine the order teams roll out for qualifying Saturday with the slowest cars coming out first. Qualifying begins early in the morning when the temperatures will be at their coolest which will equate to faster times.
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Drivers who looked suspiciously slow were Jimmie Johnson with the 29th fastest lap and Greg Biffle at No. 30. The Michael Waltrip drivers have been stars of past practice sessions on these type of tracks as well, but were all 19th or worse.
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A positive sign on the day was seeing Tony Stewart come out strong with the seventh fastest lap at 172.249 mph. Stewart struggled last week at Texas in practices and the race itself, which came as a surprise because of strong runs at Las Vegas and California. Stewart is using the same chassis that won at California, a clone of the car that won at Las Vegas.
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Martin Truex Jr. ran the most laps (45) of the session followed by Jeff Burton (43) and Earnhardt Jr (42).
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Kasey Kahne had the best average speed (169.410) among all drivers that ran at least 25 laps followed by Earnhardt Jr, Kyle Busch and Mark Martin.
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The best 10 consecutive lap average was run by Kyle Busch followed by Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Jamie McMurray and AJ Allmeninger. Only nine drivers ran at least 10 consecutive laps.
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The final 90 minute practice is scheduled for 4:30 (ET).
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