Noah Gragson and Caesar Bacarella led the NASCAR Xfinity Series field in the two practice sessions held Friday afternoon (Feb. 14) for the season opener at Daytona International Speedway.
NASCAR Xfinity Practice 1
In the first practice, Gragson paced the session with a speed of 190.21 mph. The Las Vegas native is entering his second full-time season driving the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet.
Chevrolet drivers topped the speed charts, posting the top five and seven of the top 10 quickest times. Kaulig Racing drivers Ross Chastain, Justin Haley and AJ Allmendinger were second through fourth fastest, respectively.
Driving the No. 02 Chevrolet for new NASCAR Xfinity Series team Our Motorsports, Brett Moffitt was fifth quickest. Moffitt will race in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series season opener, also at Daytona International Speedway, later Friday evening (Feb. 14).
Jeb Burton, Austin Cindric, Michael Annett, Brandon Brown and Chase Briscoe rounded out the top 10. The highest running Toyota-driver was rookie Riley Herbst, sitting 13th on the leaderboard.
36 of the 40 drivers entered completed at least one lap in the opening practice session. There were no caution flags or major incidents.
NASCAR RACING EXPERIENCE 300 1ST PRACTICE RESULTS
NASCAR Xfinity Practice 2
Driving the No. 90 DGM Racing Chevrolet, Bacarella led final practice with a speed of 186.293 mph, significantly slower than Gragson’s fast time in the opening session.
Brown completed one lap, but it was enough to place second on the sheet with a speed of 185.716 mph.
Ryan Sieg, CJ McLaughlin and Josh Williams rounded out the top-five drivers.
Jeffrey Earnhardt drove the No. 6 JD Motorsports Chevrolet in place of David Starr in this practice session. Earnhardt completed five laps and was 18th fastest with a speed of 182.183 mph. There was no immediate word from the team as to why Starr was not in the car.
Only 21 drivers completed a lap in the final practice session.
NASCAR RACING EXPERIENCE 300 FINAL PRACTICE RESULTS
NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers will return to the track Saturday for both qualifying and the race at Daytona. Qualifying will take place at 11 a.m. ET and the NASCAR Racing Experience 300 is scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m. ET.
Both events will be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1.
About the author
Mark Kristl joined Frontstretch at the beginning of the 2019 NASCAR season. He is the site's ARCA Menards Series editor. Kristl is also an Eagle Scout and a proud University of Dayton alum.
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.