Well, there’s a reason Ty Gibbs is racing on Sundays in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Returning to the NASCAR Xfinity Series for the fourth time this year, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver paced the sole practice ahead of Saturday’s Tennessee Lottery 250 at Nashville Superspeedway, driving the No. 19 He Gets Us Toyota GR Supra.
Posting a time of 30.787 seconds (155.520mph), Gibbs was able to easily clear the top of the speed charts in Friday’s 50-minute practice session, leading by more than a tenth of a second over Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Cole Custer and Riley Herbst.
Sam Mayer was the fourth-quickest driver in Friday’s session, with a lap nearly a quarter-second slower than that put down by the No. 19 Toyota GR Supra, who many had as one of the easy favorites to score the victory.
Kyle Sieg rounded out the top five in the No. 29 Ford Mustang – a fourth entry for RSS Racing – after making a strong two-lap run in the late stages of the session.
Justin Allgaier, Chandler Smith, Josh Berry, John Hunter Nemechek, and AJ Allmendinger completed the top-10 in the series’ only practice from the 1.33-mile speedway.
Zane Smith, making his first NASCAR Xfinity Series start of the year in the No. 28 for RSS Racing, clocked in 11th in the session, one spot ahead of Ryan Sieg, who put the flagship car for the organization in 12th.
CJ McLaughlin, driving the No. 53 Toyota Supra for Emerling-Gase Motorsports, was the only driver to run into issues during Friday’s session, when he got to the inside of Riley Herbst, and crashed in turn three, destroying the car.
The organization has unloaded its backup car, but will have to thrash in order to get it prepared for qualifying tomorrow at Nashville Superspeedway. Only turning one lap, McLaughlin was the slowest of the 41 cars entered.
Tennessee Lottery 250 – Practice Results
Practice Results: 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series Tennessee Lottery 250 at Nashville
