Chase Elliott, who is in a must-win situation this weekend to make the Championship 4, topped Friday’s final NASCAR Cup Series practice at ISM Raceway.
Elliott posted an average lap speed of 138.627 mph early in the final 50-minute session of the day which ended up topping the leaderboard.
“As a team, we know the position we’re in right now and it kind of is what it is at this point. We’ll either run good this weekend or we don’t,” Elliott said.
“If we do, we have a chance next week. If we don’t, we’ll go to Homestead and try to build a notebook for hopefully an opportunity down the road.”
Ryan Blaney was second (137.206 mph) and Kevin Harvick was third (136.913 mph). Martin Truex Jr. was fourth and Alex Bowman completed the top-five.
Rounding out the top-10 of the single-lap runs were Aric Almirola, Joey Logano, Matt DiBenedetto, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch.
Hamlin had the fastest average lap speed (135.437 mph) among those drivers who ran at least 10 consecutive laps. DiBenedetto and Blaney were second and third, respectively, in that category.
| Cla | # | Driver | Manufacturer | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9 |  Chase Elliott | Chevrolet | 50 | 25.969 | 138.627 | |||
| 2 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Ford | 50 | 26.238 | 0.269 | 0.269 | 137.206 | |
| 3 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Ford | 54 | 26.294 | 0.325 | 0.056 | 136.913 | |
| 4 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | 57 | 26.312 | 0.343 | 0.018 | 136.820 | |
| 5 | 88 | Alex Bowman | Chevrolet | 32 | 26.358 | 0.389 | 0.046 | 136.581 | |
| 6 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Ford | 40 | 26.447 | 0.478 | 0.089 | 136.121 | |
| 7 | 22 | Joey Logano | Ford | 73 | 26.466 | 0.497 | 0.019 | 136.024 | |
| 8 | 95 | Matt DiBenedetto | Toyota | 51 | 26.482 | 0.513 | 0.016 | 135.941 | |
| 9 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 59 | 26.486 | 0.517 | 0.004 | 135.921 | |
| 10 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 46 | 26.545 | 0.576 | 0.059 | 135.619 | |
| 11 | 42 | Kyle Larson | Chevrolet | 43 | 26.599 | 0.630 | 0.054 | 135.343 | |
| 12 | 20 | Erik Jones | Toyota | 45 | 26.603 | 0.634 | 0.004 | 135.323 | |
| 13 | 1 | Kurt Busch | Chevrolet | 48 | 26.614 | 0.645 | 0.011 | 135.267 | |
| 14 | 14 | Clint Bowyer | Ford | 49 | 26.626 | 0.657 | 0.012 | 135.206 | |
| 15 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | 51 | 26.645 | 0.676 | 0.019 | 135.110 | |
| 16 | 37 | Chris Buescher | Chevrolet | 35 | 26.654 | 0.685 | 0.009 | 135.064 | |
| 17 | 36 | John Hunter Nemechek | Ford | 34 | 26.673 | 0.704 | 0.019 | 134.968 | |
| 18 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Ford | 53 | 26.681 | 0.712 | 0.008 | 134.927 | |
| 19 | 47 | Ryan Preece | Chevrolet | 36 | 26.684 | 0.715 | 0.003 | 134.912 | |
| 20 | 21 | Paul Menard | Ford | 44 | 26.727 | 0.758 | 0.043 | 134.695 | |
| 21 | 41 |  Daniel Suarez | Ford | 61 | 26.783 | 0.814 | 0.056 | 134.414 | |
| 22 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Ford | 26 | 26.827 | 0.858 | 0.044 | 134.193 | |
| 23 | 6 | Ryan Newman | Ford | 35 | 26.831 | 0.862 | 0.004 | 134.173 | |
| 24 | 24 | William Byron | Chevrolet | 32 | 26.844 | 0.875 | 0.013 | 134.108 | |
| 25 | 38 | David Ragan | Ford | 43 | 26.852 | 0.883 | 0.008 | 134.068 | |
| 26 | 13 | Ty Dillon | Chevrolet | 25 | 26.860 | 0.891 | 0.008 | 134.028 | |
| 27 | 43 | Darrell Wallace Jr. | Chevrolet | 29 | 26.876 | 0.907 | 0.016 | 133.949 | |
| 28 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | 32 | 26.890 | 0.921 | 0.014 | 133.879 | |
| 29 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Ford | 42 | 26.898 | 0.929 | 0.008 | 133.839 | |
| 30 | 8 | Daniel Hemric | Chevrolet | 44 | 26.946 | 0.977 | 0.048 | 133.601 | |
| 31 | 32 | Corey Lajoie | Ford | 15 | 27.246 | 1.277 | 0.300 | 132.129 | |
| 32 | 53 | J.J. Yeley | Ford | 22 | 27.252 | 1.283 | 0.006 | 132.100 | |
| 33 | 52 | Bayley Currey | Chevrolet | 11 | 27.574 | 1.605 | 0.322 | 130.558 | |
| 34 | 66 | Joey Gase | Toyota | 5 | 28.576 | 2.607 | 1.002 | 125.980 |
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