Kyle Busch moves to top of pack in Brickyard 400 practice

Jimmie Johnson soared to the top of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series leaderboard Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in an opening practice that featured the return of Jeff Gordon to competition.

Carpentier hasn’t competed in a NASCAR race on an oval track since 2011 and Busch didn’t appear particularly receptive when the Canadian driver paid a visit to the No. 18 garage stall to offer his mea culpa.

A win Sunday would be Harvick’s second of the 2016 season and would secure his position in the 2016 Chase for the Sprint Cup playoffs.

Dates for upcoming key NASCAR events in Las Vegas: Truck series race, October 1; Sprint Cup Series Awards, Dec. 2; NASCAR Weekend, March 10 through 12, 2017. Horsepower is critical on Indianapolis’ massive straightaways, and the multi-car, powerhouse organizations have plenty of power under the hood.

Tony Stewart will be sporting a must-see helmet in Sunday’s race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Earnhardt pulled himself out of the auto last weekend in New Hampshire and was replaced by Alex Bowman. With that in mind, a balanced approach could have the edge over a top-heavy strategy when it comes to setting lineups this weekend. NBCSN’s coverage of the race begins at 3 p.m. ET. To experience a similar kind of pomp and circumstance would make Stewart uncomfortable, who instead preferred to focus on finding the competitiveness he had been lacking in recent years. Kyle Laron finished third at 183.767.

“I didn’t think he was going to go in there, but it was my bad”.

Team owner Rick Hendrick also provided some insight on the progress of Dale Earnhardt Jr., who will out of action at least two weeks with concussion-like symptoms.

“I guess it still pays pretty decent, so you might as well win it”, Busch said, even if the seats at Indy are as empty as when the senator from Iowa spoke at the political convention the other night. Over the past five years Busch is second in Driver Rating at 110.5, running 82.8 percent of his laps inside the Top 15 while leading all drivers with a 5.0 AFP. Newman will become a very appealing mid-priced option, especially in cash games, if he qualifies in the middle of the pack or deeper. In 13 career runs in Indy he has three Top 5s and six Top 10s, so there is value in the No. 16. His previous best season for laps led in 36 races was 581 in 2007. Kahne packs some serious upside at an affordable price tag. On Wednesday, the day it was announced Earnhardt would miss two more races, Gordon had a physical, applied for driver’s credentials and met with crew chief Greg Ives. If he qualifies deeper in the field again this weekend, Blaney has proven he can drive through toward the front and cash in on his place differential potential. I don’t know how many of them are here. Furthermore, his last win here came just two years ago. He uses the No. 14 in the Cup Series in honor of Foyt.