Rusty Jarrett/NKP/Motorsport Images
Wallace leads Nashville Superspeedway practice
As the only driver to crack 161mph (29.609s at 161.708mph to be exact) Bubba Wallace was the fastest in NASCAR Cup Series practice at Nashville Superspeedway.
The driver of the No. 23 Toyota for 23XI Racing was also the fastest in the best consecutive 10- and 15-lap averages.
Both driver and team felt it was their best practice of the season.
“Yeah, no doubt,” Wallace said. “I’m proud of them. We needed this. I needed it. Our whole team needed it. It’s just been bad luck after bad luck every week. We were the first car out of the race two weeks ago [at Sonoma], and we’re the first car on top of the board. I’ll take that trade-off, but practice doesn’t mean anything.
“We’re really happy with our Toyota Camry. We went right out and had a lot of speed and it did what I wanted it to do; just really small things we need to tweak on.”
Kyle Busch was second fastest to Wallace at 160.936mph. Tyler Reddick was third at 160.456mph; Kyle Larson fourth at 160.418mph; and William Byron was fifth at 160.391mph.
Larson is the defending race winner.
Kurt Busch was sixth fastest in practice at 160.107mph, Ross Chastain seventh at 160.064mph, Ryan Blaney eighth at 160.043mph, Denny Hamlin ninth at 159.941mph, and Martin Truex Jr. completed the top 10 at 159.792mph.
There were no incidents in the 50-minute session. It is the only practice of the weekend for Cup Series teams as they compete at Nashville for the second time.
New Cup Series winner Daniel Suarez was 14th at practice. He ran a lap of 159.621mph.
There are 36 drivers entered in Sunday's Ally 400.
Kelly Crandall
Kelly has been on the NASCAR beat full-time since 2013, and joined RACER as chief NASCAR writer in 2017. Her work has also appeared in NASCAR.com, the NASCAR Illustrated magazine, and NBC Sports. A corporate communications graduate from Central Penn College, Crandall is a two-time George Cunningham Writer of the Year recipient from the National Motorsports Press Association.
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