JR Motorsports’ William Byron appears to be in a very good position to have a great run on Saturday. The XFINITY Series rookie and championship contender was fastest overall with a lap of 32.513 seconds (166.087 mph), the fastest XFINITY lap of the day.
Byron’s quick time was eight-hundredths of a second faster than Richard Childress Racing’s Ben Kennedy. Cole Custer was third quickest, followed by Christopher Bell and Sam Hornish Jr.
Biagi-DenBeste Racing’s Casey Mears was sixth fastest, followed by Brennan Poole and Tyler Reddick. Elliott Sadler was ninth fastest and Ty Majeski was 10th.
Outside of the top 10, Justin Allgaier was 13th quickest in a session filled with long runs. Daniel Hemric improved to 15th on the speed charts.
The session went caution-free. Drivers ran right up against the wall for most of the session with little issue.
41 cars set times in the session. Jeff Green and David Starr did not go out on track. Of those that went on-track, Hornish and Reddick turned the most laps with 52. BJ McLeod recorded the least laps completed with two laps close to the end of the session.
Of the 41 drivers that set times, 17 completed 10-lap runs in the session. Custer was the fastest of those drivers with an average lap time of approximately 33.159 seconds (162.852 mph). That is about a tenth and a half of a second quicker than Sadler in second.
Results of XFINITY Series Ford EcoBoost 300 Happy Hour
Qualifying for the Ford EcoBoost 300 is scheduled for 11:10 a.m. on Saturday morning. The session will be covered live on CNBC.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.