CONCORD, N.C. — In what has amounted to an emotionally-heavy weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, which has featured a lot of soggy weather, Mother Nature finally gave enough of a reprieve to allow an on-track session to take place. In a combined NASCAR Cup Series practice session for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, it was Ricky Stenhouse Jr., the driver of the No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet, who led the way.
Stenhouse, who will start Sunday’s race from the 32nd position after qualifying was rained out on Saturday, turned a lap time of 29.069 seconds (185.765 mph), which allowed him to top the competition by more than a tenth of a second in practice. Carson Hocevar, Stenhouse’s bitter rival, clocked in 0.106 seconds off the fast pace set by Stenhouse, which allowed him to slot in second on the scoring sheet in practice.
Practice Results: Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte
Starting Lineup: Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte
Michael McDowell, Hocevar’s Spire Motorsports teammate, was third-fastest in the practice session, while Ryan Blaney and Corey Heim, driving the part-time No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota entry, rounded out the top-five finishers in Saturday’s Coca-Cola 600 practice.
Tyler Reddick, who inherited the pole position for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 due to the field being set by the performance metric, was 24th-fastest in the practice.
While there were a couple of caution periods during the practice session, it was a relatively clean session, overall. One of the two cautions came due to precipitation. Another came due to a cut tire for Austin Dillon, the driver of the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Fortunately, Dillon was able to avoid serious damage to his car, but he was only able to muster the 30th-fastest lap time of the session.
Austin Hill, who is likely feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders as he is taking over for the legendary Kyle Busch this weekend, was the 28th-fastest driver on the scoring sheet, driving the renumbered No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.
Busch, the full-time driver of what was the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing entry, passed away at the age of 41 on Thursday after a bout of severe pneumonia progressed to sepsis.
Hill, Dillon, and the entire Richard Childress Racing team will race in Busch’s honor this weekend.
Katherine Legge, who is looking to become the first female competitor to ever complete the Indianapolis 500/Coca-Cola 600 double, was 38th-fastest in the 39-car session. However, more important than her fastest lap time, Legge was able to log 28 laps in the session, which will give her some much-needed on-track time prior to Sunday’s 600-mile event.
