BRISTOL, Tenn. -- With the rain holding off at least for the time being the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series was able to hold an early-morning practice Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway.
It was the second practice overall for Sundays Food City 500 (live on FOX, with pre-race coverage starting at 1:30 p.m. ET). It was the first of two scheduled Saturday practices, but rain is expected to wash out the one scheduled for 11 a.m. ET Saturday (live on FS1 if it goes off).
Kyle Busch was fastest in Saturdays session, turning a top lap at 128.865 miles per hour.
After being fastest in Fridays lone practice session, Cup rookie Erik Jones posted the the second-fastest lap in Saturdays morning outing at 128.649 mph.
Denny Hamlin (128.176 mph), Kevin Harvick (128.091 mph) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (128.005 mph) rounded out the top five on the speed chart.
The session did not go as planned for Kyle Larson or Ricky Stenhouse Jr., both of whom spun out, doing damage to their cars. Stenhouse did more damage to his No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford after hitting the outside wall, while Larson was able to save his car by keeping it off the wall.
I had just been really loose and just got down in the corner and it took off, Stenhouse said. I thought I saved it and just got the right-rear in the wall.
After first announcing that he would go to a backup car for Sundays race, Stenhouses team reversed course. They said they were expecting rain to wash out Saturdays practice, so they would use the extra time they expected to have to try to fix Stenhouses primary car instead.
Larson was trying to test the outside line at the .526-mile late in practice when he lost control of his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. Notorious for running a higher line than most of his fellow Cup competitors, Larson declared afterward that the upper groove is not that far from coming in.
See below for complete results from Saturday morning's practice.
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