Carl Edwards and Martin Truex Jr. were fastest in Saturday’s first of two practice sessions at Auto Club Speedway.
Edwards just missed eclipsing 188 mph, recording a fast lap of 187.906 mph. Truex was second fastest at 187.632 mph, followed by Ryan Newman (186.640), Kyle Busch (186.635) and pole-sitter Austin Dillon (186.587).
Two incidents occurred in the session.
Kurt Busch hit the wall and sustained moderate damage, but enough for his team to decide to go to a backup car.
As a result, Busch, who qualified 26th Friday, will start Sunday’s Auto Club 400 from the back of the 39-car field.
At this juncture, Busch will be the only driver to go to a backup car for Sunday’s race.
Also, Aric Almirola made contact with the wall during the morning practice session, but his team will repair the damage and not be forced to a backup car.
There will be one final Cup practice session this afternoon, starting at 2:30 p.m. ET (11:30 a.m. ET).
Here’s how the practice session played out:
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