CONCORD, N.C. — Ryan Blaney and the No. 12 Ford team picked up right where they’ve left off in earlier NASCAR XFINITY Series races this season, leading the way at the end of a marathon seven-hour open test session Tuesday at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Blaney started fast and finished strong at the 1.5-mile quad-oval, topping the speed charts with a lap of 29.254 seconds (184.590 mph), nearly two tenths of a second clear of the rest of the pack.
However, his quick time came on his fourth lap of 88, due to cool morning temperatures that meant speeds dropped off as the day progressed.
Due to that, Blaney said it doesn’t necessarily mean a lot that he was on top of the board in testing, though it is a bright spot.
“You can’t read too much into it, but it’s nice for the team morale,” he explained. “We were one of the first cars on the track, and it was fast this morning when it was cool and there was no rubber on the track. It’s just hard to gauge, because you don’t know, really, what everyone else is doing.”
“It was good to get out here, though. This track is pretty tough, and it changes a lot throughout the day. It’s nice to see where it goes and to have been a part of bringing two Penske cars here (to Charlotte). … I thought today went fairly well, which is encouraging, but we’ve got some things to work on too for when we come back.”
Brandon Jones finished second (29.424/183.524) on the day with his No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, despite a spin during the morning hours that “used up a set of sticker tires, but didn’t hurt the car any.”
“There’s not many opportunities to come out here and have a full day like this, so we’ve definitely tried to take advantage of being able to come and try some things that we wouldn’t normally try,” Jones added. “Everyone’s laid back, no one’s freaking out and I’ve definitely enjoyed it so far. We found a few things and even with the spin, this was a pretty fast hot rod.”
Tyler Reddick was third-fastest (29.437/183.443) for Chip Ganassi Racing, followed by points leader Elliott Sadler and Brennan Poole.
Rookies William Byron and Cole Custer were sixth and seventh, respectively. Erik Jones, Matt Tifft and Darrell Wallace Jr. completed the top 10 on speed.
Christopher Bell turned 150 laps and finished 15th on the practice charts, making his first appearance for Joe Gibbs Racing.
The NASCAR XFINITY Series returns to Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 27 for the Hisense 4K TV 300 (1 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM).
A complete practice order can be viewed on the next page…
