Stenhouse unloads strong and leads high-deg Bristol practice

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was fastest in a Cup Series practice that resembled last year’s events at Bristol Motor Speedway as tires again show high wear.

He paced the session at 128.082mph (14.981s). Stenhouse ran 32 laps.

“We probably went a little fast early,” Stenhouse said. “The car felt really good. The boys brought me a really good SunnyD Camaro. It’s my favorite racetrack we come to, and I’m always smiling walking in the tunnel here, so it felt really, really good in practice. It’s been a while since I’ve felt like we’ve felt good in practice.

“We’ve had good race cars here … and managed our races OK, but that was the first time in a while that it felt like our car had been good in practice. Yeah, we had some cording there.”

The session ran in only 45 degree weather. It’s forecasted to be a high of 65 degrees on Sunday.

Ryan Blaney was second fastest at 127.571mph and Austin Cindric was third at 127.140mph. Kyle Larson ran fourth at 126.737mph and Chase Elliott was fifth at 126.520mph.

Brad Keselowski was sixth at 126.496mph, Denny Hamlin seventh at 126.461mph, Kyle Busch eighth at 126.337mph, John Hunter Nemechek fastest at 126.187mph and Alex Bowman 10th at 126.121mph.

Hamlin is the defending Food City 500 winner.

“Everything looks the same, truthfully,” Hamlin said of the tire wear. “I wouldn’t have expected it, but certainly it looks like the formula is striking again. It’s going to be an interesting race to see how it all plays out. There are marbles up at the top; obviously the bottom is where you want to be, and the tires are wearing out. It should be fun.”

Jesse Love was 31st fastest in practice. Love is making his Cup Series debut with Richard Childress Racing.

William Byron, the points leader, was 35th fastest. Josh Berry was 36th and Ty Dillon was last.

There are 39 teams entered at Bristol. The three Open teams are Corey LaJoie (No. 01 for Rick Ware), Love (No. 33 for Childress), and Josh Bilicki (No. 66 for Carl Long).

Kyle Larson was fastest in the best 10 consecutive lap average. Larson outpaced Stenhouse, Noah Gragson, Cole Custer, and Justin Haley.