Early into the opening practice session of the weekend at Richmond International Raceway, the Furniture Row Racing duo of Martin Truex Jr. and Erik Jones jumped to the top of the leader board, where they stayed the remainder of the 90-minute session.
Truex led the way, posting a lap at 124.178 mph, more than two-tenths of a second quicker than Jones (124.035 mph). Just after the No. 77 car posted the second quickest lap, Jones went for a spin in turns 1 and 2, slapping the outside wall with the tail end of his Toyota.
Ryan Blaney recorded the third fastest time (122.772 mph), Trevor Bayne was fourth (122.084 mph) and hometown driver Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five (121.726 mph).
Paul Menard, Jamie McMurray, Kyle Busch, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Aric Almirola made up the rest of the top 10.
Chase Elliott ran 41 laps, the most of all drivers in the session. The No. 24 car sat 12th on overall one-lap speeds. Eight drivers made a run of at least 10 laps, with Kasey Kahne having the best average time (119.324 mph).
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.