The XFINITY Series had a pair of practice sessions on Friday (June 1), in a much-anticipated two hours of action, as the series is using restrictor plates at Pocono Raceway for the first time.
Heading into the sessions, drivers were curious as to how much on-throttle time they would have. Others thought the race will play out similar to a Camping World Truck Series race at the Tricky Triangle, but Kyle Busch was the first driver to figure it out.
Practice 1
Busch turned a lap of 159.504 mph, more than two-tenths of a second ahead of Christopher Bell (158.828 mph), who was second on the board. Brandon Jones, the third Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, made it a JGR sweep of the top three positions (158.683 mph) in opening practice.
A pair of JR Motorsports Chevrolets rounded out the top five with Tyler Reddick (158.643 mph) and Justin Allgaier (158.562 mph).
Chase Elliott, John Hunter Nemechek, Cole Custer, Paul Menard and Elliott Sadler filled the rest of the top 10.
Elliott, in his second race for GMS Racing, ran 22 laps, the most in the session. Three drivers made runs of at least 10 laps, also led by the No. 23 team (156.808 mph).
Practice 2
It was much of the same in the second practice as Busch led the way for the second consecutive session. The No. 18 turned a lap of 159.507 mph, just under one-tenth of a second quicker than Elliott (159.250 mph).
Austin Cindric improved on opening practice to take the third fastest time (159.086 mph) in final practice, while Custer (159.072 mph) and Shane Lee rounded out the top five (158.999 mph).
Bell, Reddick, Allgaier, Ryan Truex and Daniel Hemric made up the rest of the top 10.
Nemechek was 13th in final practice, despite running 35 laps, the most of all 40 drivers that took time. 12 drivers made a run of at least 10 laps, where Reddick led the way at 157.636 mph, just ahead of Busch.
View full final practice results
Qualifying is set to get underway at 9:35 a.m. ET on Saturday (June 2), with the race getting underway shortly after 1 p.m. ET.
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.