By David Morgan, NASCAR Writer
Ahead of Sunday’s Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and the debut of the low downforce package at the track, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers took to the track for two test sessions on Thursday.
The first test session went incident free, with Jimmie Johnson laying down the fastest lap at 192.981 mph (27.982 seconds), followed by Daytona 500 winner, Denny Hamlin, just .020 seconds behind in second. Matt Kenseth, Brian Vickers, and Danica Patrick rounded out the top-five in the first session of the day.
While Hamlin had good reason to be in high spirits after the first test session, the second test session did not go quite as well for the 35-year old Virginia native. Although he would end the session with the 10th fastest speed, he lost control of his No. 11 Toyota coming off of Turn 2 about an hour into the session and made heavy contact with the outside wall.
Hamlin and his team had planned on using the same car from the test as their primary car for the race weekend, but after the contact, Hamlin will have to go to a backup car for the remainder of the weekend in Las Vegas.
In 10 starts at Las Vegas, Hamlin has two top-five finishes, five top-10 finishes, four laps led, and an average finish of 12.2.
Photo by Sean Gardner/NASCAR via Getty Images
