Wallace leads eventful Cup Series practice in Chicago

Bubba Wallace was fastest in an eventful NASCAR Cup Series practice on the Chicago street course.

The 23XI driver topped the board at 90.951mph (87.080s). The 23XI Racing driver enters the weekend holding the final provisional spot on the playoff grid, but it’s a slim 23-point advantage.

William Byron, the regular season points leader, was the second fastest driver in practice at 87.027mph. Byron, however, smacked the wall with the driver’s side at Turn 10 in the final minutes and wound up with significant damage. It will keep him from making a qualifying lap, which will put him at the rear of the field Sunday afternoon.

“I’m an idiot,” Byron said of what happened. “I just took a lot of shape through there and a lot of speed, obviously. I was getting my tires cleaned back off from leaving pit road.”

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Chase Elliott was the third fastest in practice at 86.964mph, but he also hit the wall in the final minutes. Elliott's incident came off Turn 5, hitting on the driver’s side, and will also require repairs in lieu of a qualifying lap.

Ty Gibbs was fourth fastest in practice at 86.945mph and Michael McDowell completed the top five at 86.782mph. Carson Hocevar was sixth fastest at 86.686mph, Shane van Gisbergen seventh at 86.676mph, Chris Buescher eighth at 86.627mph, Tyler Reddick ninth (86.619mph) and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top 10 (86.545mph).

Alex Bowman, the defending race winner, was 11th fastest in practice. However, like his Hendrick Motorsports teammates Byron and Elliott, he also experienced issues the team is working to fix.

Will Brown was the 12th fastest in practice. Brown is attempting to make his second Cup Series start with Kaulig Racing.

One driver failed to make a lap – Denny Hamlin blew an engine on his out lap when practice began and will miss the remainder of Saturday’s activities.

There are 41 teams entered in Chicago. In addition to Brown in a third Kaulig Racing entry, the other Open teams are Corey Heim for 23XI Racing, Austin Hill for Richard Childress Racing, Josh Bilicki for Garage 66, and Katherine Legge for Live Fast Motorsports.