Suarez paces Cup Series practice at Richmond

Daniel Suarez led the way in NASCAR Cup Series practice Saturday afternoon at Richmond Raceway.

It was a lap of 117.961 mph (22.889 seconds) that put Suarez atop the leaderboard. The fast lap came in his second on track during practice.

Erik Jones was second fastest at 117.955 mph and Austin Cindric was third at 117.878 mph. Riley Herbst was fourth fastest at 117.709 mph and Alex Bowman completed the top five at 117.606 mph.

Cup Series points leader Denny Hamlin was sixth fastest at 117.560 mph, Ty Dillon was seventh at 117.545 mph, and Tyler Reddick eighth at 117.534 mph. Brad Keselowski was ninth fastest at 117.514 mph and Josh Berry completed the top 10 at 117.391 mph.

There was also a moment for Reddick during practice. He got loose in Turn 4 and spun near the end of the first group session, but did not hit anything. However, he could not refire the car and needed to be pulled back to pit road.

It was the final weekend of group practice. NASCAR will shift to full-field practice sessions for the rest of the year, beginning next weekend in New Hampshire.

Austin Dillon is the defending winner at Richmond from the last two seasons. He was 31st in practice.

Christopher Bell’s team failed inspection twice with the No. 20 car. Chris Sherwood, the car chief, was ejected, and the team lost its pit stall selection for the race. Bell was 34th in practice.

Cody Ware spun in practice but did not hit anything. However, Ware reported that he lost multiple gears in his Chevrolet going into Turn 3, and he had no transmission. Ware’s team also failed inspection twice, resulting in the ejection of the car chief and the loss of pit stall selection. 

There are 37 teams entered for Sunday’s race at Richmond. The Open entry is Josh Bilicki for Garage 66.