The NASCAR XFINITY Series were the first to hit the track Friday morning at Dover International Speedway. Joey Gase and Spencer Gallagher? They were the first to have a verbal altercation after the Monster Mile reached out and bit.
Cup regular Kyle Larson led the way at 154.540 mph, putting down a hot lap around halfway through the session. Larson’s No. 42 machine was .027 tenths of a second quicker than Matt Tifft (154.361 mph), the best XFINITY Series regular. Last fall, the 20-year-old made his only start at Dover, finishing eighth. Now a full-timer, he’ll hope to follow that up this season with his first win.
Ryan Blaney turned the third-quickest time in opening practice (154.030 mph). Reigning series champion Daniel Suarez had the fourth-fastest speed (153.721 mph) while Elliott Sadler was fifth (153.669 mph).
Justin Allgaier, Cole Custer, Brandon Jones, Brennan Poole and Austin Dillon rounded out the top 10 on the speed chart.
One incident halted the session, coming with just over 20 minutes to go which caused frayed tempers. That’s when Gallagher dove into turn 3 under Gase, turning him into the outside wall. Both teams have elected to go to backup cars as their Chevrolets were banged up.
Gallagher came on the radio and screamed, “What was he [Gase] thinking?”
Bit hard to stay off of someone when they brake 3 carlengths too early and turn down on ya at a place where you can't stop…
— Spencer Gallagher (@23SpeedRacer) June 2, 2017
The XFINITY Series will be back on track at 1:30 p.m. ET for final practice before qualifying at 10 a.m. ET Saturday morning. Allgaier is the defending pole winner of the event.
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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