John Wes Townley led the opening practice of a pivotal weekend at Chicagoland Speedway for the Camping World Truck Series at a speed of 175.182 mph.
Townley, winless on the season, is in a must-win scenario in order to make the inaugural Chase for the championship in the Truck Series.
Five-time winner and championship leader William Byron was just behind in second 174.910 mph. 2013 and 2014 series champion Matt Crafton was third on the board (173.779 mph), more than two tenths of a second off Townley. Timothy Peters (173.673 mph) and Cole Custer (173.633 mph) rounded out the top 5.
Matt Tifft posted the sixth fastest time of the session in his first time in a truck since Charlotte Motor Speedway in mid-May. The driver of the No. 11 truck has spent much of the last three months recovering from brain tumor surgery.
Tyler Reddick, Johnny Sauter, Christopher Bell and Ben Rhodes rounded out the top 10.
No driver completed a run of ten consecutive laps. Rico Abreu and Ray Black, Jr. ran 22 laps in the session, the most of the 31 drivers that paced a circuit.
Click here for opening practice results at Chicago.Â
Practice Two:Â
Daniel Hemric jumped to the top of the leader board on his final lap of final practice at 176.563 mph, just edging out Spencer Gallagher (176.465 mph).
Kyle Busch Motorsports driver Daniel Suarez was third on the board (176.453 mph). Grant Enfinger was fourth (176.223 mph) and Ben Kennedy rounded out the top 5 (176.171 mph). Each of the first five drivers in final practice were not among the top 10 in opening practice.
Reddick, Peters, Rhodes, Custer and Townley rounded out the top 10.
Crafton was the only driver to make a 10-lap run, averaging 172.194 mph. Tommy Joe Martins ran 32 laps, the most of all drivers.
Qualifying will begin shortly after 4:30 p.m. ET on Friday. John Hunter Nemechek is the defending winner of the event, coming off a controversial win at Mosport two weeks ago.
Click here for final practice results.Â
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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