In what was already expected to be a wide-open NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series street race at St. Petersburg, as Saturday’s OnlyBulls Green Flag 150 will serve as the first-ever street race in series history, drivers will now go into the race with minimal practice time, and the starting lineup will be set by the rulebook.<\/p>\n
As a result, Connor Mosack, who is driving the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado this weekend<\/a>, will start Saturday’s race from the pole position due to his team having the best overall performance metric score. He’ll be joined on the front row by Gio Ruggiero, the driver of the No. 17 TRICON Garage Toyota Tundra TRD Pro.<\/p>\n James Hinchcliffe, a former IndyCar star who is going by the alias “Jimmy Hinch” in his NASCAR debut<\/a>, will start from the third spot, two-time series champion Ben Rhodes will start fourth, and Chandler Smith, the race-winner at Daytona a couple of weeks ago, will start fifth.<\/p>\n In his NASCAR National Series return, Dario Franchitti<\/a> will start sixth behind the wheel of the No. 1 TRICON Garage Toyota.<\/p>\n Wesley Slimp, Landen Lewis, Jake Garcia, and Adam Andretti round out the top-10 starters for Saturday’s race.<\/p>\n Less than 15 minutes into the lone practice session of the race weekend, which was originally scheduled for 50 minutes, the red flag was displayed as the skies opened up and released rain onto the racing surface.<\/p>\n Roughly 15 to 20 minutes later, NASCAR called off the remainder of the practice session, and also made the decision to cancel qualifying.<\/p>\n Kaden Honeycutt was fastest in the abbreviated practice session, as he turned a lap time of 1 minute and 18.922 seconds, which slotted him ahead of road racing ace Ben Maier, who was second-fastest in the session. Ben Rhodes, James Hinchcliffe, and Ty Majeski were the rest of the top-five fastest in Friday’s practice session.<\/p>\n While it was a short practice, two drivers, Andres Perez De Lara and Dario Franchitti, were able to turn eight laps before the red flag was displayed, which ranked as the most laps turned by any driver in the session.<\/p>\n Rookie of the Year contender Cole Butcher found trouble on his opening lap in the session, where he obliterated the left front corner of his No. 13 ThorSport Racing truck as he pounded a concrete barrier.<\/p>\n Heavy damage for Cole Butcher in the opening minutes of @NASCAR_Trucks<\/a> practice in St. Pete. pic.twitter.com\/P6jP1FdBhl<\/a><\/p>\n