Kyle Larson Paces NASCAR All-Star Practice Session At Dover

Kyle Larson may not have won a NASCAR Cup Series race over the last 365 days, but the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet may be the favorite to score the win in Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Race following Friday’s practice session at Dover Motor Speedway.

Larson turned the fastest lap of the hour and a half practice on his second of 73 laps around the 1-mile high-banked concrete oval in Dover, DE.

A three-time champion of NASCAR’s All-Star Race, Larson turned a fast lap time of 22.792 seconds, which equated to a 157.950 mph average speed around Dover Motor Speedway. Larson came out on top of Michael McDowell, the driver of the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, by a margin of 0.018 seconds to pace the practice session.

While McDowell was second-fastest in his RCA-sponsored Chevrolet, the Spire Motorsports driver is one of 17 in the field still looking to advance to the final segment of Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Race. McDowell was the fastest in the session of the drivers still looking to lock into the battle for $1 million.

Denny Hamlin, who has won the last two points-paying NASCAR Cup Series events at Dover Motor Speedway, was third-fastest in the session, driving his No. 11 Progressive Toyota. Earlier in the day, Progressive revealed a new advertising campaign involving Hamlin and his No. 11 Progressive racecar.

Kyle Busch continues his recent resurgence by clocking in fourth-fastest in the session. Busch, who had not scored any top-10 finishes through the opening nine races of the season, comes into this weekend’s exhibition event with two top-10 results in his last three NASCAR Cup Series starts.

Busch will also lead the field to green in Friday evening’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series ECOSAVE 200 at Dover Motor Speedway, as Busch secured the pole position in qualifying for that event earlier in the day.

Ty Gibbs, who secured his berth into the final segment of Sunday’s All-Star Race with his first-career win earlier this year at Bristol Motor Speedway, was the fifth-fastest driver in the practice session.