Alex Bowman leads first Cup practice on Bristol dirt
Alex Bowman led the way in Friday’s first NASCAR Cup Series practice session held on dirt in more than 50 years.
Bowman, who drives the No. 48 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports and has done some dirt racing in his career, had the fastest average single-lap speed at 89.307 mph, which he set early in the 50-minute session.
“It’s a lot of fun for sure,” Bowman said. “I’m pretty happy with our Ally Camaro. Everybody at Hendrick Motorsports has worked really hard guessing, I guess, on the dirt side of things and trying to use the little bit of knowledge that we do have.
“It’s a lot fun; It’s a blast going around here. It’d going pretty well so far. I feel like on long runs we’re lacking. I’ve just been running the right-rear (tire) off. We’ll keep working on it.
“I’m definitely happy to be P1 after practice but we definitely have some work to do.”
Christopher Bell, who has an extensive and successful dirt racing background, ended up second-fastest and set his quick time late in the session (88.998 mph). His Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Kyle Busch, was third (88.897 mph).
Denny Hamlin was fourth and Kyle Larson rounded out the top-five.
Rounding out the top-10 were Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Cole Custer, William Byron and rookie Chase Briscoe.
The session was slowed by caution just a couple times – once for a spin by Martin Truex Jr. and with just under five minutes to go in the session, J.J. Yeley spun off Turn 4 and hit the barrels protecting the end of the pit road wall.
Among the drivers who ran at least 10 consecutive laps, Larson had the fastest average lap followed by Bowman, Truex, Elliott and Custer.
| Cla | # | Driver | Manufacturer | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 48 |  Alex Bowman | Chevrolet | 42 | 20.155 | 89.308 | |||
| 2 | 20 | Christopher Bell | Toyota | 46 | 20.225 | 0.070 | 0.070 | 88.999 | |
| 3 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 57 | 20.248 | 0.093 | 0.023 | 88.898 | |
| 4 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 42 | 20.266 | 0.111 | 0.018 | 88.819 | |
| 5 | 5 | Kyle Larson | Chevrolet | 46 | 20.314 | 0.159 | 0.048 | 88.609 | |
| 6 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Chevrolet | 68 | 20.334 | 0.179 | 0.020 | 88.522 | |
| 7 | 22 | Joey Logano | Ford | 58 | 20.434 | 0.279 | 0.100 | 88.088 | |
| 8 | 41 | Cole Custer | Ford | 39 | 20.523 | 0.368 | 0.089 | 87.706 | |
| 9 | 24 | William Byron | Chevrolet | 36 | 20.535 | 0.380 | 0.012 | 87.655 | |
| 10 | 14 | Chase Briscoe | Ford | 39 | 20.548 | 0.393 | 0.013 | 87.600 | |
| 11 | 6 | Ryan Newman | Ford | 47 | 20.550 | 0.395 | 0.002 | 87.591 | |
| 12 | 17 | Chris Buescher | Ford | 49 | 20.557 | 0.402 | 0.007 | 87.561 | |
| 13 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | 44 | 20.568 | 0.413 | 0.011 | 87.515 | |
| 14 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Ford | 47 | 20.574 | 0.419 | 0.006 | 87.489 | |
| 15 | 8 | Tyler Reddick | Chevrolet | 38 | 20.595 | 0.440 | 0.021 | 87.400 | |
| 16 | 7 | Corey Lajoie | Chevrolet | 46 | 20.626 | 0.471 | 0.031 | 87.268 | |
| 17 | 37 | Ryan Preece | Chevrolet | 58 | 20.650 | 0.495 | 0.024 | 87.167 | |
| 18 | 42 | Ross Chastain | Chevrolet | 49 | 20.707 | 0.552 | 0.057 | 86.927 | |
| 19 | 21 | Matt DiBenedetto | Ford | 34 | 20.711 | 0.556 | 0.004 | 86.910 | |
| 20 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Ford | 45 | 20.717 | 0.562 | 0.006 | 86.885 | |
| 21 | 38 | Anthony Alfredo | Ford | 43 | 20.728 | 0.573 | 0.011 | 86.839 | |
| 22 | 1 | Kurt Busch | Chevrolet | 50 | 20.751 | 0.596 | 0.023 | 86.743 | |
| 23 | 43 | Erik Jones | Chevrolet | 26 | 20.760 | 0.605 | 0.009 | 86.705 | |
| 24 | 99 |  Daniel Suarez | Chevrolet | 66 | 20.771 | 0.616 | 0.011 | 86.659 | |
| 25 | 53 | J.J. Yeley | Chevrolet | 33 | 20.776 | 0.621 | 0.005 | 86.638 | |
| 26 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Ford | 46 | 20.781 | 0.626 | 0.005 | 86.618 | |
| 27 | 23 | Bubba Wallace | Toyota | 39 | 20.794 | 0.639 | 0.013 | 86.563 | |
| 28 | 96 | Ty Dillon | Toyota | 41 | 20.796 | 0.641 | 0.002 | 86.555 | |
| 29 | 77 | Stewart Friesen | Chevrolet | 31 | 20.810 | 0.655 | 0.014 | 86.497 | |
| 30 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Ford | 55 | 20.818 | 0.663 | 0.008 | 86.464 | |
| 31 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Ford | 44 | 20.838 | 0.683 | 0.020 | 86.381 | |
| 32 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | 50 | 20.840 | 0.685 | 0.002 | 86.372 | |
| 33 | 00 | Quin Houff | Chevrolet | 40 | 20.852 | 0.697 | 0.012 | 86.323 | |
| 34 | 15 | Chris Windom | Chevrolet | 35 | 20.866 | 0.711 | 0.014 | 86.265 | |
| 35 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Chevrolet | 53 | 20.898 | 0.743 | 0.032 | 86.133 | |
| 36 | 52 | Josh Bilicki | Ford | 19 | 20.998 | 0.843 | 0.100 | 85.722 | |
| 37 | 78 | Shane Golobic | Ford | 35 | 21.012 | 0.857 | 0.014 | 85.665 | |
| 38 | 66 | Mike Marlar | Toyota | 45 | 21.109 | 0.954 | 0.097 | 85.272 | |
| 39 | 51 | Cody Ware | Chevrolet | 50 | 21.112 | 0.957 | 0.003 | 85.260 |
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About this article
| Series | NASCAR Cup |
| Event | Bristol |
| Drivers | Alex Bowman |
| Author | Jim Utter |
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