In the first practice session of the weekend for the XFINITY Series, Kyle Busch, a two-time winner in the Cup Series at Watkins Glen, paced the way at 122.390 mph.
Unlike the Cup Series, the XFINITY Series was not able to test at the newly repaved Watkins Glen International. Off the bat, that gives the upper-hand to the top drivers as they had made previous laps on the new asphalt.
Joey Logano swept the weekend in 2015 at Watkins Glen and was second fastest (122.015 mph) in the opening session in a rare second Team Penske machine.
Kyle Larson was third on the board (121.699 mph). Paul Menard was fourth of the Cup regulars (121.595 mph), while the first XFINITY Series regular, Justin Allgaier, rounded out the top 5Â (121.591 mph).
Trevor Bayne was sixth on the speed chart (121.006 mph), making his first XFINITY Series start since 2014. Bayne is running the race to prepare for the second Cup road course race of the season.
Brad Keselowski, Brendan Gaughan, Ty Dillon and Ryan Reed made up the rest of the top 10.
Last week’s winner Erik Jones was 13th on the board with his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Daniel Suarez stuck down in 24th.
Rookie Brandon Jones paced 26 circuits, with a best lap good enough for 14th on the leaderboard,
Click here for full results of opening XFINITY Series practice at Watkins GlenÂ
About the author
Dustin joined the Frontstretch team at the beginning of the 2016 season. 2020 marks his sixth full-time season covering the sport that he grew up loving. His dream was to one day be a NASCAR journalist, thus why he attended Ithaca College (Class of 2018) to earn a journalism degree. Since the ripe age of four, he knew he wanted to be a storyteller.
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