Blaney Leads Way In “Penske Perfect” Cup Series Practice at Gateway

Craig White | TobyChristie.com

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Ryan Blaney may not have a win at World Wide Technology Raceway yet, but he’s been very close, many times over. On Saturday, the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford turned in a solid start to his race weekend at the 1.25-mile track.

Blaney ripped off the fastest lap in practice for Sunday’s Chase race, as he recorded a lap time of 33.170 seconds (135.665 mph). Blaney is pleased with the speed in his No. 12 car off the hauler this week, but knows they still need to improve his No. 12 Ford on the long run, if he hopes to contend for the win on Sunday.

“I thought we had decent speed. I’d like to keep improving it from our longer run, for sure. But overall, we’re in the ballgame. Just gotta keep working on it, and we’ll see where we are overnight,” Blaney said.

It was a very impressive session for Team Penske as a whole, as Joey Logano was second-fastest, and Josh Berry, in the affiliated Wood Brothers Racing Ford, was third-fastest.

Austin Cindric, the driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford, ranked 13th-fastest in the session.

Connor Zilisch, in fourth, was the top non-Penske-affiliated driver in the field. Tyler Reddick, Carso Hocevar, Daniel Suarez, Chase Elliott, Todd Gilliland, and William Byron rounded out the top-10 fastest in the practice session for Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300.

Enjoy Illinois 300 Practice Results

Rank	Car	Driver	Team	Make	Lap time	Diff	Speed	Laps	B. Lap
1	12	Ryan Blaney (C)	Team Penske	Ford	33.170	0.000	135.665	73	3
2	22	Joey Logano (C)	Team Penske	Ford	33.207	0.037	135.514	62	2
3	21	Josh Berry	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	33.210	0.040	135.501	66	1
4	88	Connor Zilisch #	Trackhouse Racing	Chevrolet	33.242	0.072	135.371	50	2
5	45	Tyler Reddick (C)	23XI Racing	Toyota	33.260	0.090	135.298	60	1
6	77	Carson Hocevar (C)	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	33.309	0.139	135.099	64	2
7	7	Daniel Suarez (C)	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	33.366	0.196	134.868	51	1
8	9	Chase Elliott (C)	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	33.371	0.201	134.848	64	3
9	34	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	33.375	0.205	134.831	48	2
10	24	William Byron (C)	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	33.384	0.214	134.795	60	3
11	60	Ryan Preece (C)	RFK Racing	Ford	33.388	0.218	134.779	67	4
12	20	Christopher Bell (C)	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	33.409	0.239	134.694	59	3
13	2	Austin Cindric (C)	Team Penske	Ford	33.418	0.248	134.658	62	3
14	97	Shane Van Gisbergen	Trackhouse Racing	Chevrolet	33.433	0.263	134.598	52	2
15	43	Erik Jones	LEGACY MOTOR CLUB	Toyota	33.452	0.282	134.521	49	2
16	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	33.467	0.297	134.461	52	3
17	38	Zane Smith	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	33.470	0.300	134.449	48	3
18	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing	Chevrolet	33.470	0.300	134.449	52	3
19	23	Bubba Wallace (C)	23XI Racing	Toyota	33.479	0.309	134.413	48	3
20	71	Michael McDowell	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	33.488	0.318	134.376	55	3
21	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Hyak Motorsports	Chevrolet	33.492	0.322	134.360	50	2
22	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	33.499	0.329	134.332	46	2
23	42	John Hunter Nemechek	LEGACY MOTOR CLUB	Toyota	33.509	0.339	134.292	42	2
24	54	Ty Gibbs (C)	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	33.556	0.386	134.104	42	2
25	5	Kyle Larson (C)	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	33.571	0.401	134.044	54	1
26	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	33.601	0.431	133.925	56	2
27	10	Ty Dillon	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	33.618	0.448	133.857	37	4
28	16	AJ Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	33.642	0.472	133.761	50	3
29	19	Chase Briscoe (C)	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	33.653	0.483	133.718	53	5
30	11	Denny Hamlin (C)	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	33.665	0.495	133.670	45	44
31	4	Noah Gragson	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	33.669	0.499	133.654	42	3
32	51	Cody Ware	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	33.717	0.547	133.464	35	19
33	41	Cole Custer	Haas Factory Team	Chevrolet	33.718	0.548	133.460	39	3
34	33	Austin Hill(i)	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	33.772	0.602	133.246	53	3
35	17	Chris Buescher (C)	RFK Racing	Ford	33.879	0.709	132.826	52	8
36	35	Riley Herbst	23XI Racing	Toyota	33.888	0.718	132.790	39	37

Toby Christie

Toby is the Founder of TobyChristie.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. Toby is also the co-host of The Final Lap Weekly Podcast. Additionally, he is an award-winning writer, and has followed the sport as a fan since 1993.