NASCAR Cup Series Playoff contender Ryan Blaney and Justin Haley tied atop the scoring sheet in single-lap speed in NASCAR Cup Series practice on Friday afternoon. The drivers of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse and the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet turned a fast lap of 15.307 seconds to lead the way.
Haley, who is seeking his second career NASCAR Cup Series win this weekend, turned 78 laps in the session, while Blaney, who is looking to advance to the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 12, ran 84 laps.
It’s been an up-and-down opening round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs for the 16 championship contenders, and it continued in Friday’s practice at Bristol with only five Playoff contenders registering top-10 lap times.
Related: NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Grid
Carson Hocevar, Brad Keselowski, and Michael McDowell rounded out the top-five fastest drivers in practice for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race.
With Hocevar and McDowell ranking inside the top-five of the scoring sheet, all three Spire Motorsports cars were represented inside the top-five of the practice results.
Chase Briscoe, who is already locked into the next round of the Playoff with a win in the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington a couple of weeks ago, was the second-fastest Playoff driver in the session as he ranked sixth. Denny Hamlin, the other driver locked into the next round of the Playoffs due to his win last weekend at Gateway, was seventh-fastest.
While many expected to have high-wearing tires this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, the tire wear was not a factor in Friday’s practice session. Now, the conditions on track will be very different on Saturday night, but as of now, it looks like the rumored higher tire wear could be a non-story.
Here are the complete results from NASCAR Cup Series practice for Saturday night’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Race 29 of 36.
Rank
Car
Driver
Lap time
Diff
1
7
Justin Haley
15.307
—
1
12
Ryan Blaney (P)
15.307
—
3
77
Carson Hocevar
15.309
0.002
4
6
Brad Keselowski
15.312
0.005
5
71
Michael McDowell
15.313
0.006
6
19
Chase Briscoe (P)
15.328
0.021
7
11
Denny Hamlin (P)
15.347
0.040
8
9
Chase Elliott (P)
15.358
0.051
9
54
Ty Gibbs
15.364
0.057
10
1
Ross Chastain (P)
15.397
0.090
11
16
AJ Allmendinger
15.401
0.094
12
20
Christopher Bell (P)
15.402
0.095
13
23*
Bubba Wallace (P)
15.406
0.099
14
60
Ryan Preece
15.419
0.112
15
35*
Riley Herbst #
15.435
0.128
16
48
Alex Bowman (P)
15.436
0.129
17
2
Austin Cindric (P)
15.448
0.141
18
38*
Zane Smith
15.458
0.151
19
41
Cole Custer
15.471
0.164
20
10
Ty Dillon
15.481
0.174
20
4*
Noah Gragson
15.481
0.174
22
34*
Todd Gilliland
15.492
0.185
23
42
John Hunter Nemechek
15.496
0.189
24
67*
Corey Heim (i)
15.525
0.218
25
24
William Byron (P)
15.537
0.230
26
99
Daniel Suarez
15.545
0.238
27
5
Kyle Larson (P)
15.570
0.263
28
47
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
15.583
0.276
29
88
Shane van Gisbergen #
15.583
0.276
30
3
Austin Dillon (P)
15.584
0.277
31
22
Joey Logano (P)
15.601
0.294
32
43
Erik Jones
15.615
0.308
33
17
Chris Buescher
15.626
0.319
34
45*
Tyler Reddick (P)
15.636
0.329
35
33*
Austin Hill (i)
15.676
0.369
36
8
Kyle Busch
15.679
0.372
37
51
Cody Ware
15.696
0.389
38
21
Josh Berry (P)
15.709
0.402
39
66*
Chad Finchum
15.870
0.563
(P) indicates NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Driver
# indicates Rookie of the Year contender
* indicates “Open” entry
(i) indicates a driver ineligible to score points
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