Allmendinger, Gibbs lead Cup Series practice at Charlotte Roval

AJ Allmendinger and Ty Gibbs paced Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series practice at the Charlotte Roval, which saw playoff drivers scattered throughout the leaderboard.

Allmendinger led the way at 94.748mph (86.630s). Gibbs clocked in at 94.707mph.

Daniel Suarez was the third fastest at 94.545mph, Kyle Busch was fourth at 94.474mph, Zane Smith was fifth at 94.415mph and Carson Hocevar was sixth at 94.292mph.

The fastest playoff driver was the defending race winner Kyle Larson (94.237 mph).

Justin Haley was eighth at 93.997mph, Christopher Bell (P) ninth at 93.957mph and Noah Gragson completed the top 10 at 93.949mph.

The rest of the playoff drivers in practice were Ross Chastain (16th), William Byron (20th), Chase Elliott (23rd), Ryan Blaney (24th), Tyler Reddick (25th), Bubba Wallace (27th), Joey Logano (28th), Denny Hamlin (30th), Chase Briscoe (32nd) and Austin Cindric (33rd).

Elliott and Blaney are the only two drivers locked into the next round.

The four drivers below the cutline going into Sunday’s elimination race at Charlotte are Wallace, Reddick, Chastain and Cindric.

There were no incidents in the session. Sunday will see 37 teams take the green flag.

Shane van Gisbergen was fastest in the best 10 consecutive lap average in practice. It was van Gisbergen, Ty Gibbs, Chris Buescher, William Byron and Christopher Bell.

Sunday, van Gisbergen seeks his fifth road course win of the six races run this season.