Several tire issues as Gragson leads practice

For one of the few times this season, Cup teams were given a 50-minute practice session on Friday, this time because it’s the series’ first race at the .875-mile oval. The track has also been recently partially repaved.

With several cars doing mock qualifying runs late in the session, Gragson ended up with the top average speed at 137.988 mph.

Ty Gibbs was second quick (136.558 mph) and Alex Bowman ended up third (136.334 mph).

Justin Haley and Chase Elliott rounded out the top five.

Completing the top-10 were Ross Chastain, Harrison Burton, Denny Hamlin, Austin Dillon and Chase Briscoe.

Among those drivers who ran at least 10 consecutive laps, Tyler Reddick (who also suffered a right-front flat) had the top average lap speed (135.168 mph) followed by Chastain and Bowman.

About 14 minutes into the session, Gibbs was forced to pull off the track after he suffered a flat right-front tire but was able to keep his No. 54 Toyota off the Turn 3 wall.

Several minutes after the track returned to green, Gibbs’ Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Christopher Bell, also had a right-front tire go down but he hit the wall between Turns 3 and 4 fairly hard and did significant right-side damage to his No. 20 Toyota.

“Just lost the tire, man. Lost the tire,” Bell said after the incident. Asked about what he had learned from his time on the track, he said, “It’s about what we expected. Lots of grip on the bottom, and that’s what we expected.”

Bell’s No. 20 team was forced to move to a backup car, and he will have to start Sunday night’s race from the rear of the field.

About 30 minutes into the session, Chastain’s No. 1 Chevrolet came to a rest on the backstretch after he appeared to have a left-rear tire go down. It took nearly 13 minutes to tow his car on a dolley back to the garage.

Austin Cindric had a right-front tire go down and grazed the Turn 2 wall with about 10 minutes to go in practice. He will also go to a backup car and join Bell at the rear of the field.