Zane Smith was quickest of them all in opening practice for Friday’s season-opening NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series NextEra Energy 250 at Daytona International Speedway.
The rookie turned a fast lap of 193.175 mph in his No. 21 GMS Racing Chevrolet Silverado.
Riley Herbst wound up second in the session in the No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports truck, while Ty Majeski was third in Niece Motorsports’ No. 45 entry.
Joe Nemechek and John Hunter Nemechek — who were wildly drafting each other during the session — rounded out the top-five fastest from practice 1.
However, the real story of the opening practice session was that Johnny Sauter in ThorSport Racing’s No. 13 truck didn’t run a single lap. It wasn’t by design, rather it was an electrical issue that hampered the Ford F-150.
There is one more 30-minute session on tap for Thursday, the ThorSport crew will attempt to make repairs so Sauter can get on track and at least get acclimated to his truck before Friday’s qualifying session.
