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Byron tops COTA Cup practice
William Byron led Saturday’s extended NASCAR Cup Series practice session at Circuit of The Americas at 94.703mph (129.626s).
Byron jumped to the top of the leaderboard as the session drew to a close. Cup Series teams were given a total of 40 minutes on track (split into two 20-minute sessions) since COTA is the first road course race of the season and has the new rules package that debuted at Phoenix Raceway.
Ty Gibbs was second fastest in practice at 94.681mph. Alex Bowman was third fastest (94.416mph), Bubba Wallace was fourth (94.260mph), and Christopher Bell fifth (94.226mph).
Kyle Busch was sixth fastest (94.132mph), Ross Chastain was seventh (94.129mph) and Kamui Kobayashi, in a third entry for 23XI Racing, was eighth fastest (94.021mph). Kyle Larson (93.980mph) and Shane van Gisbergen (93.947mph) completed the top 10.
Busch was one of six drivers who spun in practice. However, they were all single-car spins without contact.
The defending race winner, Tyler Reddick, was 12th fastest in practice. Reddick’s fastest lap was 93.790mph.
AJ Allmendinger was 17th fastest in practice. Allmendinger’s fastest lap was 93.582mph.
Chase Elliott was 20th in practice. Other notable drivers further down the speed chart were Ryan Preece (22nd), Noah Gragson (23rd), Michael McDowell (26th), and Brad Keselowski (30th).
Denny Hamlin was 33rd in practice, Josh Berry 36th and Erik Jones 37th.
There are 39 drivers entered in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix.
No driver ran 10 consecutive laps in practice.
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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