It was all Ryan Truex during Friday’s (Nov. 12) practices at Texas Motor Speedway.
One of the drivers in the XFINITY Series who are uncertain about their future has a chance to make a statement in the final three races and on Saturday Truex began just that.
Truex led Friday’s first practice session in advance of Saturday’s (Nov. 3) O’Reilly Auto Parts 300. Truex turned a 187.162 mph (28.852 seconds) lap around the Texas Motor Speedway to put his No. 11 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet Camaro on top of the speed charts. Daniel Hemric finished the session in second -0.051-seconds off of Truex.
Elliott Sadler finished the session in third while Cole Custer and Matt Tifft rounded out the top-five speeds.
The session was slowed twice for accidents involving Morgan Shepherd and Austin Cindric. Shepherd smacked the outside wall in the middle of Turns 1, 2 and spun down the backstretch making contact with the inside wall ending his practice session and weekend early as the No. 89 team do not have a backup car.
Cindric smacked the outside wall at the exit of turn four forcing the No. 22 team to bring out a backup car. Cindric sits at the bottom of the playoff standings heading into Saturday’s race and today’s accident won’t help. He still finished 12th in the first session of the day. Cindric joined Justin Allgaier (15th) as two slowest playoff drivers. Christopher Bell (seventh) and Tyler Reddick (ninth) joined those two as slowest playoff drivers.
First Practice Results from Texas Motor Speedway
It looked to be Brandon Jones to win the second session of practice on Friday after the red flag was displayed with less than five minutes remaining in the session. Truex went out with less than two minutes remaining and put his No. 11 on top of the speed charts for the second straight session.
Jones, who led just a little bit of the final minutes of practice, finished second while Shane Lee, Cole Custer, and Bell rounded out the top-five speeds.
Matt Tifft (eighth), Justin Allgaier (ninth), Austin Cindric (11th), and Tyler Reddick (14th) were the four slowest playoff drivers during the session as the series heads toward qualifying for this important second race of the round of eight.
Final Practice Results from Texas Motor Speedway
Qualifying for Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 from Texas kicks off at 1:30 p.m ET on CNBC. Countdown to Green kicks off at 4 p.m. ET on NBCSN while the race kicks off at 4:30 p.m. ET also on NBCSN.
About the author
His favorite tracks on the circuit include Barber Motorsports Park, Iowa Speedway, Martinsville Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway, Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville, and Bristol Motor Speedway.
During the season, Christian also spends time as a photographer with multiple other outlets shooting Monster Energy AMA Supercross, Minor League & Major League Baseball, and NCAA Football.
A daily email update (Monday through Friday) providing racing news, commentary, features, and information from Frontstretch.com
We hate spam. Your email address will not be sold or shared with anyone else.