AJ Allmendinger was fastest in NASCAR Cup Series practice Saturday at the Charlotte Roval while Conor Daly got his first welcome-to-NASCAR moment.

Allmendinger ran a fast lap of 102.188mph (81.732seconds) to top the board over Austin Cindric (at 102.105mph).

William Byron was third fastest at 102.091mph, Joey Logano fourth at 101.802mph and Daniel Suarez completed the top five at 101.584mph.

Cole Custer was sixth fastest at 101.410mph, Kyle Larson seventh at 101.367mph, Tyler Reddick eighth at 101.288mph, Michael McDowell ninth at 101.230mph, and Ryan Blaney 10th at 101.207mph.

Larson is the defending race winner.

The playoff drivers not in the top 10 in practice were Ross Chastain 11th, Chase Briscoe 12th, Christopher Bell 14th and Denny Hamlin 18th.

Conor Daly had the only significant issue in practice. Making his Cup Series debut with The Money Team Racing, the IndyCar regular got into the wall out of the backstretch chicane when the car didn’t turn left onto the banking in oval Turns 3 and 4.

Daly only completed six laps in practice. The team will not make a qualifying run.

“We were pitting that lap as well, which is kind of a shame, but all of a sudden, I just lost all steering,” Daly said. “It just went straight in the wall. It was as if you disconnected the steering entirely, and I could have just rolled the steering wheel anywhere I wanted. That was weird. I’ve never felt anything like that before in my life.

“I don’t know how bad the car is, honestly. I don’t know how these cars hit, obviously, but now I do. Hopefully the team can get it back together and we can go at it because it was a lot of fun out there, honestly. I was really enjoying getting up to speed.”

There are 39 drivers entered in the Bank of America Roval 400. It is the second elimination race in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs and will trim the championship field from 12 drivers to eight.