Yahoo Autos Logano fastest in rain-affected Cup practice at WWT Raceway
Joey Logano led the way in a rare full-field practice for the NASCAR Cup series at World Wide Technology Raceway.
The inaugural Cup winner at the facility laid down a 138.024mph (32.603s) lap on the fourth of his 19 laps to lead the session.
It was held with the full field to ensure all teams equal track time with encroaching storms lingering just east of the track. Light rain briefly halted the session after 18 minutes of the scheduled 30 minutes, but NASCAR deemed the track dry and practice resumed minutes later.
Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney (138.020mph) followed Logano in second, the defending champ’s quickest lap falling just .001s shy of quick time. Ty Gibbs (137.923mph) was the quickest Toyota in third, with 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick (137.640mph) and Bubba Wallace (137.438mph) completing the top-five.
Austin Cindric (137.400mph) was last among the Team Penske drivers in sixth. Seventh-place Ross Chastain (137.400mph) was the lone Chevrolet driver in the top-10. He was followed by Christopher Bell (137.270 mph), Michael McDowell (137.141 mph) and Martin Truex Jr. (137.124mph).
Kyle Larson returned to Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 5 Chevrolet after missing the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 to contest the Indianapolis 500. The 2021 champion slotted 24th on the charts with a best lap of 136.265mph. He’s still waiting to learn whether NASCAR will issue him a playoff eligibility waiver.
There were no accidents during the session, though Chase Briscoe did slide out into the infield grass while practicing pit entry.. All 36 teams present took to the track, with 31st-place Noah Gragson completing a session-high 37 laps and 35th-place Erik Jones running the fewest (15).
