Tyler Reddick posted the best lap in Friday’s first NASCAR Cup Series practice session at Bristol Motor Speedway.Â
The Richard Childress Racing driver recorded a top seed of 89.924 mph around the dirt covered half-mile track. Reddick recorded 63 laps in the first of two 50-minute sessions.
The top five was completed by Chase Briscoe (89.753 mph), Kyle Busch (89.695), Justin Haley (89.673) and Kurt Busch (89.299).
“I think there’s gonna be a lot of lane choices based off of just where this tire’s grip is, where the power in this car is horsepower wise,” Reddick said. “But all of a lot of these things just depend on what the weather does Saturday and how much that really dictates what we can and can’t do to this track.”
Kyle Larson was 16th on the speed chart. Christopher Bell was 10th.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had the best 10-lap average at 88.669 mph.
Defending race winner Joey Logano had the best 20-lap average, followed by Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain.
“(The visibility) wasn’t perfect, but it was definitely raceable,” Briscoe said. “Then there at the end it definitely got where it’s pretty dusty. You couldn’t really see much (of Turns) 1 and 2 but that’s typical for dirt racing when there’s the sun out right and when you start with a track that dry that’s gonna happen. So yeah, I don’t think the visibility will be as bad tomorrow, or Sunday.”
Briscoe added “you could water it a lot more up top and that would fix a lot of the dust problem underneath, but then also put on probably a little better product from a racetrack standpoint.”
Practice featured multiple grooves, with cars racing on the bottom and all the way to the top, where Reddick spent much of the session.
How many grooves should be expected Sunday?
“Depends on what the guy with the keys to the water truck and the tiller do truthfully,” Briscoe said. “Just how this dirt is versus the dirt that we have at a place like Eldora, it doesn’t clump up as much so I think we could get a lot more water on it and till it deeper and be fine.”
There were two spins in the first seven minutes of the session. The first was by Alex Bowman in Turn 4. The second was for his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott, who spun on his own on the frontstretch.
Chase Briscoe went to the top of the speed chart on his 19th lap, but shortly after had to go to the pits with a flat left-rear tire.
Denny Hamlin brought out the caution after 18 minutes when he go into the wall in Turn 2.
“I couldn’t see the corner, the dust was so bad,” Hamlin told Fox Sports 1.
Elliott spun again with 25 minutes left, this time exiting Turn 2, to bring out another caution. He’d spin for a third time with seven minutes left.
The session stayed green until about 10 minutes left for a Chastain spin. Logano went for a spin a few minutes later.
Click here for the speed chart.
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