Hamlin nears 205 mph in pacing

TALL A DEG A, A L A.» Denny Hamlin climbed from his car at Talladega Superspeedway and was shocked to learn he had not only topped the speed chart, but reached nearly 205 mph in pacing practice.

“It really caught me off guard,” Hamlin said Friday after his lap at 204.904 mph.

The Daytona 500 winner posted the seventh-fastest lap of the season — behind six drivers at a July practice at Daytona — in the closing moments of the first drafting session. He was the only driver to top 204, but Kevin Harvick was second fastest at 203.688 mph. Kyle Busch, who had an early fuel pressure issue at the start of practice, was third at 203.684 and seven drivers in total surpassed 203 mph.

Speeds like that typically cause jitters in NASCAR at its fastest and biggest track, where cars have been known to flip and Kyle Larson, the only driver locked into the third round of the playoffs, wound up upside down on his roof in the spring.

Hamlin downplayed any concerns headed into Sunday’s playoff race, saying “only insurance companies” worry about speeds over 200 mph — a mark surpassed by 33 of the 44 drivers in Friday’s first practice.

The cars were slower in the final practice, with Clint Bowyer fastest at 202.042 mph while five other drivers topped 200. Harvick, who said he doesn’t even bother to look at the speeds anymore, said the window to slow the cars closed when NASCAR didn’t react prior to April’s race here.

“I was in that same group where Denny got that run and we just got a good run on the pack,” Harvick said. “I think if they were concerned about the speed they would have probably tried to fix it after the first race here and it doesn’t seem like anybody was really concerned with it. I don’t know what changed, but I think (the cars) will probably be over 200 miles an hour most of the day.”

The Talladega weekend schedule gave teams track time only on Friday, with qualifying the only scheduled activity Saturday. It made for a condensed schedule ahead of a wildcard race in NASCAR’s playoffs. Sunday marks the middle race of this round, and four drivers will be trimmed from the remaining field next week at Kansas.

The unpredictability of Talladega makes it critical for drivers to have a smart strategy — but that’s not a guarantee of a clean race.

“I tell everybody all the time we’ve got about a 50% chance of winning or flipping 17 times,” Bowyer said. “I mean, it’s just one or the other.”