Fords fast Friday at Talladega

The Fords continued their impressive display of restrictor-plate speed in the opening practice session Friday afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway.

Four-time Talladega winner Brad Keselowski was the first of nine Ford drivers in the top 10 in speeds. Keselowski rocketed to the top of the leaderboard with a 197.859 mph lap. Kurt Busch was second fastest at 197.806 mph with Ryan Blaney third fastest at 197.798 mph.

The most recent Talladega winner, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., was fourth fastest at 197.761 mph. Kevin Harvick was fifth fastest at 197.696 mph; Clint Bowyer was sixth fastest at 197.680 mph; Aric Almirola was seventh fastest at 197.667 mph; Danica Patrick was eighth at 197.647 mph, and Joey Logano was ninth at 197.606 mph.

Logano is the defending winner at Talladega. The Team Penske driver will look for his third straight fall Talladega win Sunday afternoon while Ford is looking for its fifth win at Talladega. The manufacturer can also sweep the season at the plate tracks, having won the previous three races entering the weekend.

Chevrolet driver Kasey Kahne completed the top 10. Kahne ran a lap of 197.082 mph.

Six-time Talladega winner and the track's most popular driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. was 13th fastest in the session. Earnhardt's quickest lap was 196.721 mph.

As has become the norm at restrictor-plate tracks, the 55-minute session featured different agendas. Some teams were not afraid to draft in a pack while others worked on single-car runs.

There were two red flags during the session. One was for the No. 15, which stalled at the entrance to pit road. Jimmie Johnson also brought the practice to a halt when he blew a tire and went for a spin in Turn 4.

The No. 48 Chevrolet suffered minor damage as Johnson said the team would work on pushing some panels out and possibly replacing the splitter as he went through the grass.

"Popped a tire going into (Turn) 3 and looking at some of the photos here a second ago, it looked like the tire was already soft down the back straightaway," he said. "I guess I ran something over on the apron getting up to speed, and made, oh I don't know, maybe a third of a lap and was spun out, which is really bizarre."

UP NEXT: Final practice at 2 p.m. CT.