Harvick quickest in first practice - Speedway Digest

Kevin Harvick led the first Sprint Cup Series practice session at Watkins Glen International with a speed of 128.474 miles per hour (mph). Harvick has a lone Cup win at the Glen in 2006.

The driver of the No.4 car finished runner-up last weekend at Pocono to Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and hasn’t visited victory lane since Darlington in April. His fastest lap in practice today was faster than the track qualifying record set last year by Marcos Ambrose.

Following him on the speed charts was six-time Cup champ Jimmie Johnson. The No. 48 car laid down a lap of 68.992 seconds (127.841 mph).

The driver Johnson finished runner-up to in points in 2012, Brad Keselowski, was third quick. Keselowski has finished runner-up the last three years at Watkins Glen. An early spin set the No. 2 team backwards early in last year’s race, but Keselowski rebounded to get right on the bumper to eventual race winner Kyle Busch.

A.J. Allmendinger posted the fourth fastest time and was strong last time out on the road course at Sonoma. Allmendinger had the car, but didn’t have the finish to back it up.

Marcos Ambrose rounded out the top five with a speed of 126.356 mph, nearly two mph slower than his 2013 track qualifying record. Ambrose will look to add a second Richard Petty Motorsports (RPM) car to the Chase for the Sprint Cup with a win on Sunday.

The Sprint Cup Series cars will have final practice today at 4:30 p.m. before qualifying tomorrow morning. Kyle Busch is the defending winner of the race.

Author
Recent Posts

Kyle Magda

Currently, I’m a journalism student in college who enjoys the sport of racing. I've been following NASCAR in-depth since 2001.Along with my love of racing, I’m also into baseball, football (college & pro), and college basketball.I also have my own website, The Life of Kyle, where I write about various topics.And to get my feet wet into radio, I have my own show called Overdrive. I started it with my friend. Since we can’t record together most of the time, we have our own versions. I cover NASCAR and ARCA, and he takes Formula One and IndyCar.Not forgetting to mention, I have my own YouTube channel as well.As for race tracks, I’ve gone to races at Pocono, Watkins Glen, Daytona, Dover, Loudon and a few local short tracks as well. I hope to cross the Indianapolis 500 off my list in the future. I hope to become a man of many hats.