NASCAR scrapped Cup qualifying early on Saturday when rain moved into the area but when a small break came worked feverishly to dry the track in hopes of getting teams some practice time.
As it turned out, teams got on track for just over 4½ minutes before the rain returned and remainder of the 30-minute session was canceled.
In that brief time, Carson Hocevar ended up with the fastest average lap speed at 127.533 mph and completed seven laps, the most anyone was able to finish.
Michael McDowell ended up second quick (127.312 mph) while Brad Keselowski was third (127.214 mph).
William Byron and rookie Zane Smith rounded out the top five.
Shortly after practice was canceled, NASCAR announced it had moved up the start of Sunday’s Cup race about 30 minutes to 2:06 p.m. ET due to expected inclement weather.
The lineup for Sunday’s Cup race was set by the NASCAR performance metric, which has Hendrick driver Chase Elliott on the pole.
Keselowski, who will start in the top 10 on Sunday based on the metric, said the dynamic of this weekend’s race by greatly altered by the weather and NASCAR’s willingness to use wet weather tires.
“We’d rather start on the pole, right, have a shot at that and see us have practice and qualifying,” he said. “But you know it certainly does look like there’s going to be some significant weather adversity throughout the weekend and probably a strong chance that we end up racing on the rain tires at some point.
“That’s going to completely shuffle the grid and make qualifying and all that stuff a little less relevant.”
Keselowski said NASCAR has a difficult challenge to find the “right condition” to utilize the tires.
“If it’s raining too hard and there’s too much water coming down, the visibility goes to zero. We can’t see in the cars, but probably just as important, the TV cameras and the fans can’t see,” he said.
“But if it stops raining and it’s not raining enough, it melts the tires right off the car, very quickly. So, you need like a constant, very low drizzle of rain to be able to make it feasible for the cars to run in the wet.
“They need the perfect weather to do it.”
| CLA | DRIVER | # | MANUFACTURER | LAPS | TIME | INTERVAL | MPH | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
C. HocevarSPIRE MOTORSPORTS
|
77 | Chevrolet | 6 |
29.865 |
127.534 | ||
| 2 | M. McDowellFRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS | 34 | Ford | 6 |
+0.052 29.917 |
0.052 | 127.312 | |
| 3 | B. KeselowskiRFK RACING | 6 | Ford | 4 |
+0.075 29.940 |
0.023 | 127.214 | |
| 4 | W. ByronHENDRICK MOTORSPORTS | 24 | Chevrolet | 7 |
+0.087 29.952 |
0.012 | 127.163 | |
| 5 |
Z. SmithSPIRE MOTORSPORTS
|
71 | Chevrolet | 6 |
+0.096 29.961 |
0.009 | 127.125 | |
| 6 | J. LoganoTEAM PENSKE | 22 | Ford | 7 |
+0.106 29.971 |
0.010 | 127.083 | |
| 7 | D. HamlinJOE GIBBS RACING | 11 | Toyota | 3 |
+0.110 29.975 |
0.004 | 127.066 | |
| 8 | J. BerrySTEWART-HAAS RACING | 4 | Ford | 6 |
+0.157 30.022 |
0.047 | 126.867 | |
| 9 | B. Wallace23XI RACING | 23 | Toyota | 4 |
+0.181 30.046 |
0.024 | 126.766 | |
| 10 | N. GragsonSTEWART-HAAS RACING | 10 | Ford | 6 |
+0.188 30.053 |
0.007 | 126.736 | |
| 11 | C. LajoieSPIRE MOTORSPORTS | 7 | Chevrolet | 4 |
+0.198 30.063 |
0.010 | 126.694 | |
| 12 | R. BlaneyTEAM PENSKE | 12 | Ford | 7 |
+0.203 30.068 |
0.005 | 126.673 | |
| 13 | C. BuescherRFK RACING | 17 | Ford | 6 |
+0.205 30.070 |
0.002 | 126.664 | |
| 14 | K. LarsonHENDRICK MOTORSPORTS | 5 | Chevrolet | 5 |
+0.205 30.070 |
0.000 | 126.664 | |
| 15 | R. ChastainTRACKHOUSE RACING | 1 | Chevrolet | 6 |
+0.206 30.071 |
0.001 | 126.660 | |
| 16 | T. GillilandFRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS | 38 | Ford | 6 |
+0.269 30.134 |
0.063 | 126.395 | |
| 17 |
T. GibbsJOE GIBBS RACING
|
54 | Toyota | 7 |
+0.281 30.146 |
0.012 | 126.345 | |
| 18 | D. SuarezTRACKHOUSE RACING | 99 | Chevrolet | 5 |
+0.291 30.156 |
0.010 | 126.303 | |
| 19 | C. ElliottHENDRICK MOTORSPORTS | 9 | Chevrolet | 7 |
+0.297 30.162 |
0.006 | 126.278 | |
| 20 | A. CindricTEAM PENSKE | 2 | Ford | 6 |
+0.307 30.172 |
0.010 | 126.236 | |
| 21 | R. PreeceSTEWART-HAAS RACING | 41 | Ford | 6 |
+0.313 30.178 |
0.006 | 126.211 | |
| 22 | A. BowmanHENDRICK MOTORSPORTS | 48 | Chevrolet | 6 |
+0.335 30.200 |
0.022 | 126.119 | |
| 23 | M. Truex JrJOE GIBBS RACING | 19 | Toyota | 4 |
+0.350 30.215 |
0.015 | 126.057 | |
| 24 | C. BriscoeSTEWART-HAAS RACING | 14 | Ford | 6 |
+0.364 30.229 |
0.014 | 125.998 | |
| 25 | R. Stenhouse JrJTG DAUGHERTY RACING | 47 | Chevrolet | 6 |
+0.373 30.238 |
0.009 | 125.961 | |
| 26 | K. BuschRICHARD CHILDRESS RACING | 8 | Chevrolet | 4 |
+0.395 30.260 |
0.022 | 125.869 | |
| 27 | J. HaleyRICK WARE RACING | 51 | Ford | 6 |
+0.397 30.262 |
0.002 | 125.861 | |
| 28 | J. NemechekLEGACY MOTOR CLUB | 42 | Toyota | 6 |
+0.435 30.300 |
0.038 | 125.703 | |
| 29 | T. Reddick23XI RACING | 45 | Toyota | 7 |
+0.461 30.326 |
0.026 | 125.595 | |
| 30 | E. JonesLEGACY MOTOR CLUB | 43 | Toyota | 3 |
+0.622 30.487 |
0.161 | 124.932 | |
| 31 | K. GralaRICK WARE RACING | 15 | Ford | 4 |
+0.660 30.525 |
0.038 | 124.776 | |
| 32 | T. DillonKAULIG RACING | 16 | Chevrolet | 6 |
+0.704 30.569 |
0.044 | 124.597 | |
| 33 | H. BurtonWOOD BROTHERS RACING | 21 | Ford | 6 |
+0.783 30.648 |
0.079 | 124.276 | |
| 34 | A. DillonRICHARD CHILDRESS RACING | 3 | Chevrolet | 4 |
+1.154 31.019 |
0.371 | 122.789 | |
| 35 | D. HemricKAULIG RACING | 31 | Chevrolet | 6 |
+1.334 31.199 |
0.180 | 122.081 | |
| 36 | C. BellJOE GIBBS RACING | 20 | Toyota | 0 |
|
