Austin Cindric tops NASCAR Cup practice on Indy RC
Team Penske’s Austin Cindric topped Saturday morning’s lone NASCAR Cup Series practice session at the Indy Road Course.
As it turned out, the top-four speeds all came from the first 20-minute session led by Cindric’s average lap speed of 98.446 mph.
Daniel Suarez was second (98.354 mph), Ryan Blaney third (98.168 mph), Ross Chastain fourth and Christopher Bell – fastest in Group B – ended up fifth-fastest overall.
Group B
Bell was fastest in the second 20-minute session with an average lap speed of 98.089 mph.
Tyler Reddick ended up second (97.881 mph) and A.J. Allmendinger – who won this race a year ago – was third (97.875 mph).
Kevin Harvick and Joey Hand rounded out the top-five.
Just more than five minutes into the session, Corey LaJoie spun in Turn 11 and briefly went off course and but didn’t appear to suffer any damage to his No. 7 Chevrolet.
With about seven minutes remaining in the session, Erik Jones locked up in Turn 12 and briefly went off course.
Group A
Cindric led the way in the first 20-minute session with an average lap speed of 98.446 mph.
Suarez ended up second-fastest (98.354 mph) and Blaney made a run late in the session to get to third (98.168 mph).
“I thought it was a good session for us,” Blaney said. “We were able to make one change and go out and make some pretty decent laps. It’s hot, pretty slick out there. The biggest thing we fought is there’s a lot of corners you need bite and drive.”
Chastain was fourth and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top-five.
About six minutes into the session, both Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin briefly went off course but were able to continue on without a problem.
Hamlin also missed the entry to Turn 1 late in the session.
Cla | # | Driver | Manufacturer | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | Austin Cindric | Ford | 7 | 1'29.171 | 98.467 | |||
2 | 99 | Daniel Suarez | Chevrolet | 9 | 1'29.273 | 0.102 | 0.102 | 98.354 | |
3 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Ford | 10 | 1'29.442 | 0.271 | 0.169 | 98.169 | |
4 | 1 | Ross Chastain | Chevrolet | 10 | 1'29.499 | 0.328 | 0.057 | 98.106 | |
5 | 20 | Christopher Bell | Toyota | 13 | 1'29.514 | 0.343 | 0.015 | 98.090 | |
6 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | Ford | 12 | 1'29.570 | 0.399 | 0.056 | 98.028 | |
7 | 8 | Tyler Reddick | Chevrolet | 12 | 1'29.704 | 0.533 | 0.134 | 97.882 | |
8 | 16 | A.J. Allmendinger | Chevrolet | 8 | 1'29.710 | 0.539 | 0.006 | 97.875 | |
9 | 31 | Justin Haley | Chevrolet | 9 | 1'29.777 | 0.606 | 0.067 | 97.802 | |
10 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 9 | 1'29.804 | 0.633 | 0.027 | 97.773 | |
11 | 5 | Kyle Larson | Chevrolet | 8 | 1'29.826 | 0.655 | 0.022 | 97.749 | |
12 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | 10 | 1'29.827 | 0.656 | 0.001 | 97.748 | |
13 | 14 | Chase Briscoe | Ford | 8 | 1'29.940 | 0.769 | 0.113 | 97.625 | |
14 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Ford | 11 | 1'29.949 | 0.778 | 0.009 | 97.615 | |
15 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Ford | 11 | 1'29.951 | 0.780 | 0.002 | 97.613 | |
16 | 38 | Todd Gilliland | Ford | 10 | 1'29.955 | 0.784 | 0.004 | 97.609 | |
17 | 21 | Harrison Burton | Ford | 12 | 1'29.956 | 0.785 | 0.001 | 97.608 | |
18 | 15 | Joey Hand | Ford | 12 | 1'29.965 | 0.794 | 0.009 | 97.598 | |
19 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | 11 | 1'30.060 | 0.889 | 0.095 | 97.495 | |
20 | 17 | Chris Buescher | Ford | 10 | 1'30.063 | 0.892 | 0.003 | 97.492 | |
21 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 12 | 1'30.076 | 0.905 | 0.013 | 97.478 | |
22 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Chevrolet | 10 | 1'30.083 | 0.912 | 0.007 | 97.470 | |
23 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Ford | 11 | 1'30.100 | 0.929 | 0.017 | 97.452 | |
24 | 22 | Joey Logano | Ford | 11 | 1'30.112 | 0.941 | 0.012 | 97.439 | |
25 | 24 | William Byron | Chevrolet | 8 | 1'30.141 | 0.970 | 0.029 | 97.407 | |
26 | 48 | Alex Bowman | Chevrolet | 8 | 1'30.261 | 1.090 | 0.120 | 97.278 | |
27 | 41 | Cole Custer | Ford | 11 | 1'30.455 | 1.284 | 0.194 | 97.069 | |
28 | 42 | Ty Dillon | Chevrolet | 9 | 1'30.540 | 1.369 | 0.085 | 96.978 | |
29 | 23 | Bubba Wallace | Toyota | 9 | 1'30.792 | 1.621 | 0.252 | 96.709 | |
30 | 45 | Ty Gibbs | Toyota | 12 | 1'30.819 | 1.648 | 0.027 | 96.680 | |
31 | 51 | Cody Ware | Ford | 8 | 1'31.146 | 1.975 | 0.327 | 96.333 | |
32 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Chevrolet | 8 | 1'31.174 | 2.003 | 0.028 | 96.304 | |
33 | 77 | Josh Bilicki | Chevrolet | 9 | 1'31.599 | 2.428 | 0.425 | 95.857 | |
34 | 27 | Loris Hezemans | Ford | 12 | 1'31.694 | 2.523 | 0.095 | 95.758 | |
35 | 43 | Erik Jones | Chevrolet | 4 | 1'31.874 | 2.703 | 0.180 | 95.570 | |
36 | 7 | Corey Lajoie | Chevrolet | 7 | 1'32.135 | 2.964 | 0.261 | 95.299 | |
37 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Toyota | 7 | 1'32.580 | 3.409 | 0.445 | 94.841 | |
38 | 78 | Josh Williams | Ford | 4 | 1'35.482 | 6.311 | 2.902 | 91.959 |
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