Jamie McMurray led the first of Friday afternoon's two rounds of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice at Talladega Superspeedway in advance of Sunday's GEICO 500 (FOX, 12:30 p.m. ET).
McMurray, who wheels the No. 1 Chip Ganassi-owned Chevrolet, had a best lap of 199.737 miles per hour around the mammoth Alabama speedway. And McMurray will be a threat to win on Sunday.
"If your car is good and you can run in the front pack most of the day it's not too crazy until the last 10 or 20 laps," said McMurray. "After that it is intense superspeedway racing."
Although the veteran has only seven career race victories, four of them have come at Talladega and Daytona International Speedway, the two restrictor-plate tracks on the NASCAR circuit.
Rookie Chase Elliott was second in the first of the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets, running a best lap of 199.729 mph. Then came Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Kurt Busch and Danica Patrick, followed by 2011 Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne.
Practice speeds really don't mean much here, as some drivers ran in drafting packs, which make everyone faster, and others made only single-car runs, which are much slower.
The final Happy Hour round of practice is at 4:30 p.m. ET on FS1, with a rare Saturday qualifying session at 12:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
Check out the complete results from Friday's first Sprint Cup practice here:
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