Awesome to see Mears doing so well! But, what the hell happened to Vickers?!
Results from the first of Saturday's two Sprint Cup practices in Vegas
By Tom Jensen
This just in: The Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas are still fast. Carl Edwards demonstrated as much Saturday when he paced the first of two rounds of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in advance of Sunday’s Kobalt 400 (FOX, 3 p.m. ET).
Edwards had a best lap of 191.564 miles per hour during the morning session at the 1.5-mile track. Unfortunately for the veteran driver, though, he will start Sunday’s race from the back of the field, after a right-rear tire failure during qualifying on Friday put his No. 19 JGR Toyota into the wall. That forced Edwards to a back-up car and a starting spot at the tail end of the grid on Sunday.
But Edwards’ back-up car clearly has plenty of speed, and the driver didn’t sound upset at the prospect of having to come through the field in Sunday’s race.
“In a way starting the race from the rear is kind of fun. Other than the fact that it’s harder, it’s kind of a neat challenge,” Edwards said. “I’ve done it a bunch in my career. I think statistically when we start in the rear we do pretty well. We’ll just go for it.”
Second fast in the Saturday morning session was Austin Dillon, who wheeled the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet to a best lap of 190.894 mph. Casey Mears was third in the No. 13 Germain Racing Chevy, with Kasey Kahne and Brad Keselowski completing the top five.
The final Happy Hour round of practice takes place at 2:30 p.m. ET and will be televised live on FS1.
Here are the results from Saturday's first practice:
| POS. | CAR # | DRIVER | MANUFACTURER | SPONSOR | BEST SPEED | BEST TIME | BEHIND |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 19 | Carl Edwards |
| Arris | 191.564 | 28.189 | Leader |
| 2 | 3 | Austin Dillon |
| Dow - Energy & Water / Intellifresh | 190.894 | 28.288 | --0.099 |
| 3 | 13 | Casey Mears |
| GEICO | 190.698 | 28.317 | --0.128 |
| 4 | 5 | Kasey Kahne |
| Farmers Insurance | 190.355 | 28.368 | --0.179 |
| 5 | 2 | Brad Keselowski |
| Miller Lite | 190.295 | 28.377 | --0.188 |
| 6 | 6 | Trevor Bayne |
| Advocare Ford Fusion | 190.282 | 28.379 | --0.190 |
| 7 | 31 | Ryan Newman |
| Caterpillar | 190.168 | 28.396 | --0.207 |
| 8 | 24 | Chase Elliott |
| NAPA Auto Parts | 190.168 | 28.396 | --0.207 |
| 9 | 47 | AJ Allmendinger |
| Smith’s / Kingsford | 190.027 | 28.417 | --0.228 |
| 10 | 41 | Kurt Busch |
| Monster Energy / Haas Automation | 190.020 | 28.418 | --0.229 |
| 11 | 20 | Matt Kenseth |
| DeWalt | 190.014 | 28.419 | --0.230 |
| 12 | 16 | Greg Biffle |
| Cheez-It Ford Fusion | 189.907 | 28.435 | --0.246 |
| 13 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson |
| Kobalt | 189.760 | 28.457 | --0.268 |
| 14 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr |
| Fastenal Ford Fusion | 189.301 | 28.526 | --0.337 |
| 15 | 42 | Kyle Larson |
| Target | 189.268 | 28.531 | --0.342 |
| 16 | 11 | Denny Hamlin |
| FedEx Office | 189.215 | 28.539 | --0.350 |
| 17 | 43 | Aric Almirola |
| Smithfield | 188.679 | 28.620 | --0.431 |
| 18 | *21 | Ryan Blaney |
| Motorcraft / Quick Lane Tire + Auto Center | 188.673 | 28.621 | --0.432 |
| 19 | 34 | Chris Buescher |
| Love’s Travel Stops | 188.554 | 28.639 | --0.450 |
| 20 | 78 | Martin Truex Jr |
| Furniture Row | 188.534 | 28.642 | --0.453 |
| 21 | 1 | Jamie McMurray |
| CESSNA | 188.521 | 28.644 | --0.455 |
| 22 | 4 | Kevin Harvick |
| Jimmy John's | 188.436 | 28.657 | --0.468 |
| 23 | 15 | Clint Bowyer |
| 5-Hour Energy | 188.390 | 28.664 | --0.475 |
| 24 | 23 | David Ragan |
| Dr. Pepper | 188.245 | 28.686 | --0.497 |
| 25 | 27 | Paul Menard |
| Dutch Boy / Menards | 188.180 | 28.696 | --0.507 |
| 26 | 88 | Dale Earnhardt Jr |
| Nationwide | 188.160 | 28.699 | --0.510 |
| 27 | 18 | Kyle Busch |
| M&M's 75 | 188.127 | 28.704 | --0.515 |
| 28 | 44 | Brian Scott |
| Albertsons Co. / White Tail | 188.107 | 28.707 | --0.518 |
| 29 | 10 | Danica Patrick |
| Nature's Bakery | 188.016 | 28.721 | --0.532 |
| 30 | 22 | Joey Logano |
| Shell Pennzoil | 187.253 | 28.838 | --0.649 |
| 31 | 14 | Brian Vickers |
| Mobil 1 | 187.182 | 28.849 | --0.660 |
| 32 | 95 | Michael McDowell |
| WRL General Contractors | 186.761 | 28.914 | --0.725 |
| 33 | 7 | Regan Smith |
| Road Rippers Street Beatz Chevrolet | 186.612 | 28.937 | --0.748 |
| 34 | 83 | Matt DiBenedetto |
| Cosmo Motors | 184.578 | 29.256 | --1.067 |
| 35 | 38 | Landon Cassill |
| MDS Transport | 184.237 | 29.310 | --1.121 |
| 36 | 46 | Michael Annett |
| Pilot Flying J | 183.113 | 29.490 | --1.301 |
| 37 | 32 | Jeffrey Earnhardt |
| Can - Am | 182.883 | 29.527 | --1.338 |
| 38 | *30 | Josh Wise |
| Curtis Key Plumbing | 182.537 | 29.583 | --1.394 |
| 39 | *98 | Cole Whitt |
| Speed Stick Chevy | 182.445 | 29.598 | --1.409 |
[TBODY] [/TBODY]
