Sprint Cup Series drivers and teams took to the track for the first time in two weeks at Texas Motor Speedway today after the Easter break. Two weeks ago it was the tight and tricky one-mile oval of Martinsville Speedway where the drivers did battle but this week it is the fast 1.5 mile oval of Texas Motor Speedway.
The first of two practice sessions for the top-tier of American stock car racing took place at 11:30 am to 1 pm and was led by driver of the #78 Martin Truex Jr with a time of 28.258 seconds - which was set on his opening lap of the session. The driver of the No. 78 had a speed of just over 191 mph on that fastest lap time, but was in race trim rather than qualifying trim, which most of the teams were planning to run in the second and final practice session.
Martin Truex Jr, Kasey Kahne, Kevin Harvick, Casey Mears and David Ragan made up the top five at the end of the first 90 minute session.
At 2 pm ET, the second and final practice session for the Sprint Cup Series began; this 80-minute session was topped by birthday-boy Kasey Kahne in the No. 5 with a 28.276 second lap time. As the session came to a close Jimmie Johnson 28.343, Jamie McMurray 28.473, Denny Hamlin 28.487 and Casey Mears 28.562 rounded out the the top-five behind Kasey Kahne.
Joey Logano who finished the session in 26th in the No. 22 told Fox Sports 1: "This Shell Pennzoil Ford is really quick, I'm just getting angsty now and I just want to get back into the car and get into qualifying trim and see what it can do."
The final practice session was much the same as the first session from 11:30am until the final twenty minutes when most of the teams changed their cars over to qualifying trim and the times on the board began to drop and improve.