New Faces Atop Brickyard Second Practice Session -Hamlin To A Backup Car

Paul Menard during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Big Machine Vodka 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. [Matt Sullivan/Getty Images]

By Dan Margetta

Speedway, Ind., Sept. 7— The leader board at the conclusion of the second NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series practice session for the Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard looked drastically different from the opening session with several new names at the top of the list headed by 2011 Brickyard 400 winner Paul Menard while a crash in the final seconds sent Denny Hamlin to a back-up car.

Menard completed 16-laps in the session and his final lap time of 48.628 seconds at an average speed of 185.079 mph led the session while Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Erik Jones were second and third respectively. Chris Buescher and Matt DiBenedetto were fourth and fifth while Daniel Hemric was sixth fastest. Kyle Busch was seventh fastest followed by Ryan Preece while Kurt Busch and Joey Logano rounded out the top ten.

Hamlin’s car pounded the wall in turn four just after the session ended and his Toyota rolled down the pit lane on fire before it finally came to a stop, allowing him to exit the wrecked machine.

The incident relegated the #11 Fed Ex Toyota team to a back-up car for Sunday’s Brickyard 400 and afterwards during a television interview, Hamlin attributed the accident to a blown right front tire.

Many teams used the practice session to work on race set-ups and Jimmie Johnson turned in the most laps at 35 followed by Joey Logano at 34 laps and William Byron at 33 laps.

Jimmie Johnson had the best 15 consecutive lap average while Kurt Busch led the ten and five consecutive lap averages.

Dan Margetta

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