Michael McDowell had the fastest overall lap in Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series practice session at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, topping the charts at 126.416mph (30.129s). He ran 26 laps.
“For a guy that normally sucks at New Hampshire, that’s a really good practice,” McDowell said. “I’m really proud of (crew chief) Travis Peterson and everybody at Front Row (Motorsports). Short tracks were our struggle, and we’ve turned it around this year. Richmond was good. Phoenix was good.
“We had our fingers crossed that we could nail it at New Hampshire and so far we have. The Pete Store Ford Mustang was good. We have to go out there and do it in qualifying now, but unloaded where we needed to be.”
Martin Truex Jr. was second fastest at 126.408mph. Truex dominated at New Hampshire last season for 172 laps led before finishing fourth.
The No. 19 was also fastest in the best five and 10-lap consecutive average.
Ross Chastain was third fastest overall at 126.077mph, Tyler Reddick fourth at 125.907mph, Bubba Wallace fifth at 125.815mph, Justin Haley sixth at 125.678mph and Kyle Busch seventh at 125.599mph.
Busch had a slide off Turn 2 and slapped the wall with the right rear and then the right front of his Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. While it required attention from his crew, Busch did get back on track for additional laps before the session ended.
Brad Keselowski was eighth fastest at 125.587mph and teammate Chris Buescher was ninth at 125.310mph. Christopher Bell completed the top 10 at 125.257mph.
Bell is the defending race winner in New Hampshire. He was fastest in the best 15 consecutive lap average.
There are 36 drivers entered in the Crayon 301. Cole Custer is making his second start with Rick Ware Racing in the No. 51 Ford, and was 27th fastest in practice.
Ryan Newman is also back with Rick Ware Racing this weekend, driving the No. 51 Ford, and was 34th.