Gibbs paces Clash practice; Bowman Gray heat lineups set

Today at 08:33 PM

Ty Gibbs was fastest in Saturday night's practice for the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium.

Gibbs topped the board at 64.199mph (14.019s). The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was in the first group of drivers who hit the track for practice when all the quickest times were set.

Ryan Preece was second fastest with his new RFK Racing team at 63.681mph. Ty Dillon was third at 63.506mph; Kyle Larson, fourth at 63.501mph and Riley Herbst, fifth at 63.501mph.

Noah Gragson ran sixth fastest at 63.492mph; Bubba Wallace, seventh at 63.470mph; Alex Bowman, eighth at 63.291mph; Daniel Suarez, ninth at 63.287mph and Austin Cindric rounded out the top 10 at 63.256mph.

Reigning series champion Joey Logano was 19th fastest in practice. Tim Brown, the 12-time Bowman Gray track champion looking to make his Cup Series debut with Rick Ware Racing, was 36th. Burt Myers, also a local Bowman Gray star with 11 track championships, was 38th.

The field of 39 was split into three groups for two practice rounds at eight minutes each.

No significant incidents occurred.

The third session on track served as qualifying to set the lineup for the heat races. Groups had four minutes on track, with each practice group split in half for clearer track — six groups of either six or seven drivers at a time.

Heat No. 1:

1. Chase Elliott

2. Brad Keselowski

3. Ryan Blaney

4. Justin Haley

5. Ross Chastain

6. Josh Berry

7. Noah Gragson

8. Kyle Busch

9. Austin Dillon

10. Ty Dillon

Heat No. 2:

1. Chris Buescher

2. Chase Briscoe

3. Shane van Gisbergen

4. Zane Smith

5. Bubba Wallace

6. Kyle Larson

7. Daniel Suarez

8. Erik Jones

9. Cody Ware

10. Garrett Smithley

Heat No. 3:

1. Denny Hamlin

2. Joey Logano

3. William Byron

4. Alex Bowman

5. Carson Hocevar

6. Ty Gibbs

7. AJ Allmendinger

8. Riley Herbst

9. Tim Brown

10. Burt Myers

Heat No. 4:

1. Tyler Reddick

2. Christopher Bell

3. Austin Cindric

4. Cole Custer

5. Todd Gilliland

6. Ryan Preece

7. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

8. John Hunter Nemechek

9. Michael McDowell

NEXT: Heats begin at 8:30 p.m. ET and will set the first 20 of 23 drivers for Sunday evening’s Clash field.