Chase Elliott leads final Cup Series practice at Charlotte

Chase Elliott

Pete McCole/AR1

Chase Elliott turned in the fastest lap in Saturday's final practice session for Sunday's Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Elliott ran his quickest lap toward the end of the one-hour session that saw Cup Series playoff contenders Martin Truex, Jr. and Alex Bowman find trouble in what will be the final race of the opening round Round of 16.

"I thought we made it a little better today from where we were yesterday," said Elliott. "Hopefully we have it driving well enough to be good as we go. Obviously, we qualified really bad yesterday, so we need to be able to try to stay out of trouble and have the ability to move forward. We’ll give it our best shot."

Elliott put down a lap of 102.101 mph in the No. 9 Chevrolet. Truex was leading the practice session before his No. 19 Toyota lost the motor, forcing the team to change engines and sending Truex to the rear of the field to start Sunday's race.

Alex Bowman's torn-up Chevrolet

Pete McCole/AR1

With 30 seconds left in the practice session, Bowman buried his car into the tire barrier, putting him in a backup car and also relegating him to a back-of-the field start on Sunday.

FINAL PRACTICE RESULTS