CUP: ‘Dinger Fastest Early

Sprint Cup

CUP: ‘Dinger Fastest Early

AJ Allmendinger qualified second for the Food City 500…

Tom Jensen | Posted March 17, 2012 Bristol, TN

A.J. Allmendinger, driver of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge, looks on during qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)

AJ Allmendinger continued to show great speed at Bristol Motor Speedway, as he set the fastest time in the first of Saturday’s two practices for the Food City 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race.

Allmendinger, who qualified on the outside pole, had a fast lap of 122.638 miles per hour in his No. 22 Penske Racing Dodge. Second-fast at 122.576 mph was Kyle Busch in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

Ryan Newman was third at 122.443 mph in the No. 39 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet, followed by pole-sitter Greg Biffle, 122.380 mph in the No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford. Martin Truex Jr. completed the top five.

The second five was Kasey Kahne, Aric Almirola, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth and Jeff Burton.

The practice got off to a dicey start, with Jimmie Johnson spinning on his third lap at the exit of Turn 4, the rear end of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet getting collected by Paul Menard. But it could have been much worse: Johnson’s teammates Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. narrowly missed hitting him.

Neither Johnson nor Menard had to go to a backup car.

The final Happy Hour practice is set for noon ET and will be televised live on SPEED.

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.

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