Ricky Stenhouse Jr. crashed less than 20 minutes into the second Monster Energy Cup Series practice at Bristol Motor Speedway, leaving Roush Fenway Racing with work to do before Sunday’s race.
Stenhouse got loose in Turn 2 and spun with the right rear catching the outside wall, resulting in damage not only to the quarterpanel but the back bumper. The No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing team initially made a quick assessment of the damage before pulling out the backup car but changed their minds a few minutes later.
Having looked at the radar, the team felt the final practice (scheduled for 11 a.m. ET) would be rained out, so it was decided they would take the time to fix the primary car. Stenhouse will not lose his starting position if the team does repair the car.
“I had just been really loose and just got down in the corner and it took off,” Stenhouse said, who was 26th fastest. “I thought I saved it and just got the right-rear in the wall.”
Stenhouse was the first of two incidents during the 55-minute session, which started at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Polesitter Kyle Larson also got loose in Turn 2. Larson went for a slide but was able to keep the car from major damage, just lightly scrapping the right-rear quarterpanel against the wall. Larson was 17th fastest in the session.
Kyle Busch paced the field at 128.865 mph. Erik Jones was second fastest at 128.649 mph with Denny Hamlin (128.176 mph), Kevin Harvick (128.091 mph), and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (128.005 mph) rounding out the top five.
The rest of the top 10 were Kasey Kahne (127.886 mph), Martin Truex Jr. (127.826 mph), AJ Allmendinger (127.818 mph), Ryan Blaney (127.682 mph), and Matt Kenseth (127.639 mph).
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