By David Morgan, Associate Editor
SPEEDWAY, Ind. – NASCAR is back where it belongs on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval in preparation for Sunday’s running of the Brickyard 400.
Friday was all about practice for both the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series, with both series getting a 50-minute session on-track to dial in their machines around the 2.5-mile circuit before their respective races over the next two days.
Tyler Reddick came away as the fastest driver in Cup Series practice, setting the quick time of 49.293 seconds, 182.582 mph.
“When you come to a place like this, that’s something you always hope for,” Reddick said of his speed in practice. “I’ve been fortunate. We ran the road course here to be really, really strong and obviously it seemed like Denny had a good test and we were able to get some good data from the wheelforce car.”
“So yeah, it’s tracks like this. It’s always a question mark to some degree, you know, how close is your preparation and sim are gonna be, but it seemed like everyone did a pretty good job. Pretty happy with how the car drives. Certainly, it’s interesting how the draft works. Like I do feel like there is some sort of tow that you get out there, but also the dirty air that comes with it is a challenge. It was just a big learning session, I guess.”
The driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota has won before at Indianapolis, but it was on the IMS road course, so he will be looking to be the first to win on both configurations.
“That would be nice,” Reddick added. “Obviously we’ve got a lot of work to do still, but it’s nice to know that the speed and handling is there in our Beast Unleashed Toyota Camry. But yeah, we got qualifying ahead. We’re just gonna have to have to execute. I think this is an easy track to make a mistake and have a really bad lap. Qualifying will be huge.
“Qualifying for the pit selection will also be very important. This pit road is pretty scary. Having a good pit stall is gonna help the confidence of your pit crew and just help you out with a smooth day in general.”
Ryan Blaney was second fastest in the session, followed by Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, and Alex Bowman.
Kyle Larson returns to Indianapolis for the first time since running the Indy 500 back in May, clocking in sixth-quick. The remainder of the top-10 went to the RFK Racing duo of Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher, along with William Byron and…
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