Busch Brothers Pace Pocono Practice, Qualifying Set for Friday Afternoon

The first practice of the weekend at Pocono is in the books, and it was Kurt Busch who led the way. Busch's fast lap was timed at 50.600 seconds, which he ran on his final lap of the session.

Kyle Busch posted the second-quickest lap of the morning session by running a lap that was just five-hundredths of a second slower than his older brother. His quickest time was also posted on his final lap of the session.

This practice session was the only track time the drivers will have before making their qualifying runs Friday afternoon. Qualifying is set to begin at 3:10 p.m. ET.

Greg Biffle, Jeff Burton and Joey Logano rounded out the top-five fastest drivers. Defending race winner Jeff Gordon (who won August's Pocono race) ran his fastest lap in 51.111 seconds, which was good enough for 13th on the speed charts. Jimmie Johnson, the winner the last time the series visited Pocono in June, ran a fast lap of 51.154 seconds, which ranked him 16th in the session.

Only one incident was reported: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. made contact with the wall early in the practice. The team will not need to use the backup car and will instead repair the damage.

When qualifying gets underway, it will be Gordon who takes the track first. Only 43 cars are in the garage area, so all drivers will qualify for the race.

Two additional practices will be run on Saturday in preparation for the GoBowling.com 400, which is set to run on Sunday at approximately 1:00 p.m. ET.