Hocevar tops Charlotte practice; Chastain crashes fast car

Carson Hocevar was fastest in Saturday’s lone practice session for the Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, topping the board at 180.445mph (29.926s).

Ty Gibbs was second fastest (180.366mph), AJ Allmendinger third (179.312mph), Denny Hamlin fourth (178.938mph) and Tyler Reddick fifth (178.896mph).

Erik Jones ran sixth (178.861mph), Bubba Wallace seventh (178.855mph), William Byron eighth (178.689mph), Ross Chastain ninth (178.553mph) and Michael McDowell 10th (178.282mph).

Chastain completed 20 laps in practice and then crashed in Turns 3 and 4 because of a blown left rear tire. To add insult to injury, Chastain had been fastest in the best 10, 15, and 20 lap averages before the crash.

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“No,” Chastain said of whether he had a warning beforehand. “Down the backstretch, all the air came out all at once. I tried to keep it straight and brake as hard as I could in a straight line, and our Jockey Chevy there, it was too late in the straightaway. I was OK until I got into the banking, and then the whole car got on the ground and around it went.”

Kyle Larson was 21st fastest in practice and Christopher Bell was 26th. Bell is the defending Coca Cola 600 winner.

Jimmie Johnson was 27th, Joey Logano 29th and Connor Zilisch 35th. Sunday will be Zilisch’s first Cup Series start on an oval.

Kyle Busch was the only driver who did not participate. Busch reported a power steering issue when leaving pit road and immediately came back to the attention of his team. Richard Childress Racing worked to fix the issue, but ran out of time for Busch to get on track.

There are 40 teams entered at Charlotte Motor Speedway.