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Posted 06/01/2012 at 05:18 PM
Aric Amirola laid down the fastest lap in Friday’s final of two practice sessions at Dover International Speedway in preparation for Sunday’s FedEx 400. The fast lap of 157.205 mph came while Almirola was in qualifying-trim in the early moments. Should Almirola set the fastest lap in Saturday’s qualifying it would be his second straight race sitting on the pole.
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Jeff Gordon found some speed (156.958) early in the session while in qualifying trim, good enough for second fastest. Gordon has been good at Dover over the last decade with a 14.8 average finish, but doesn’t have any wins over that span. All of Gordon’s four Dover wins came prior to the 2002 season, including a stretch of winning three straight from 1995-96.
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Gordon’s seventh-place finish at Charlotte last week, along with good average speeds today might suggest a turning point in his season. Of all drivers that ran at least 40 laps, no one had a faster average speed (152.266).
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A big difference from the final 90-minute session compared to the first one earlier was that 27 drivers made runs of 10-consecutive laps. Only three drivers attempted 10 straight laps earlier.
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The best 10-consecutive lap average was set early in the session by Mark Martin, yet he only had the 29th fastest single lap overall. Martin Truex Jr, Jimmie Johnson, Gordon and Greg Biffle. Almirola was also fast in this category while in race trim near the end of his practice.
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The most laps of the session were run by Biffle with 81. Brad Keselowski and Ryan Newman also got 75 laps in.
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The Hendrick cars all look collectively strong, most notably Gordon, Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. who all finished within the top-4 fastest speeds in the final session. Kasey Kahne finished with the 16th fastest lap.
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