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Hocevar tops Cup Series practice at The Lady in Black
Carson Hocevar was fastest in Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series practice at Darlington Raceway at 168.054mph (29.262s).
The Spire Motorsports driver, practicing in the first group allowed on track, set the pace on his first lap.
Josh Berry was second fastest at 167.180mph, Erik Jones third at 167.123mph, Austin Cindric fourth at 166.777mph and Justin Haley completed the top five at 166.552mph.
William Byron was sixth at 166.535mph, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. seventh at 166.231mph, Ty Gibbs eighth at 166.214mph, Austin Dillon ninth at 165.961mph and Brad Keselowski 10th at 165.698mph.
Keselowski is the defending winner of the Goodyear 400 at Darlington.
Ryan Preece was 11th, Denny Hamlin 12th, Ryan Blaney 13th, Chase Briscoe 14th and Chris Buescher 15th. Chase Elliott ran only 21st, Kyle Larson was 23rd and Kyle Busch was 25th.
Christopher Bell was 29th, with Alex Bowman at 31st and Joey Logano 34th.
There was one incident during practice, but it was non-contact. John Hunter Nemechek briefly brought out the caution when he spun off Turn 2.
Josh Berry was fastest in the best 10 consecutive lap average. Berry topped Carson Hocevar, Brad Keselowski, William Byron, and Noah Gragson.
There are 38 teams entered at Darlington Raceway. The two Open teams are Austin Hill in the No. 33 for Richard Childress Racing and JJ Yeley in the No. 44 for NY Racing Team.
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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