Bell fastest in Cup practice at Nashville

Christopher Bell was the fastest driver in NASCAR Cup Series practice Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway with a lap of 160.660 mph (29.802s).

The 45-minute session was scheduled to give teams track time after qualifying had been rained out. It was a combined session for all drivers, rather than the field being split into groups.

Ross Chastain, who won at Nashville two years ago, was second fastest in practice. Chastain’s lap was 160.542 mph.

Denny Hamlin was third fastest with a lap of 160.526 mph. Hamlin will start from the pole on Sunday night.

Ty Gibbs was fourth fastest at 159.947 mph, and Tyler Reddick completed the top five at 159.936 mph. AJ Allmendinger was sixth fastest at 159.914 mph, and Kyle Larson was seventh fastest at 159.893 mph. The rest of the top 10 was Ryan Blaney at eighth fastest at 159.856 mph, Chase Briscoe at ninth fastest at 159.760 mph, and William Byron at 159.579 mph.

Blaney is the defending race winner.

Further down the practice sheet was Chase Elliott in 12th, Connor Zilisch in 14th, and Carson Hocevar in 16th. Bubba Wallace was 19th fastest, Corey Heim was 20th, Brad Keselowski was 23rd, and Alex Bowman was 26th.

There were no significant incidents in the session.

Ty Gibbs was fastest in the best 10 consecutive lap average.

NEXT: The Cracker Barrel 400 at 7 p.m. ET Sunday.

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