Kyle Larson took advantage of the elongated practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Friday (March 10) at Phoenix Raceway and put his Hendrickcars.com Chevrolet Camaro on top of the leaderboard with a speed of 131.258 mph. The driver of the No. 5 dominated in every lap average metric all the way up to his 30-lap average and showed plenty of speed with the new short track package.
Ryan Blaney was the fastest of the Ford drivers in second with a lap at 131.105 mph, not too far back from the dominant Larson. Alex Bowman, Joey Logano, and Chase Briscoe round out the top five.
Brad Keselowski was sixth, followed by Daytona 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Harrison Burton, who crashed in practice last weekend in Las Vegas, was eighth. Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Kevin Harvick and Aric Almirola completed the top 10. The Fords had the most representation in the top 10 with seven cars.
Bubba Wallace was the fastest Toyota in practice clocking in at 16th.
NASCAR scheduled a longer 50-minute practice session to give teams more time to test the new short track package. The session went by without interruption, but there was a significant increase in tire falloff on long runs as compared to last year.
NASCAR CUP SERIES UNITED RENTALS WORK UNITED 500 PRACTICE RESULTS
NASCAR Cup Series teams will qualifying Saturday (March 11) at 2:05 p.m. ET. Coverage of qualifying will air live on FOX Sports 1. The green flag for Sunday’s United Rentals Work United 500 will drop at 3:30 p.m. ET with broadcasting provided by FOX.
Wyatt Watson has followed motorsports closely since 2007. He joined Frontstretch as a journalist in February 2023 after serving in the United States Navy for five years as an Electronic Technician Navigation working on submarines. Wyatt is one of Frontstretch's primary IndyCar correspondents, providing exclusive video content on site. He hosts Frontstretch's Through the Gears podcast and occasionally The Pit Straight.You can find Wyatt's written work in columns such as Friday Faceoff and 2-Headed Monsteras well as exclusive IndyCar features. Wyatt also contributes to Frontstretch's social media team, posting unique and engaging content for Frontstretch.
Wyatt Watson can be found on X @WyattWRacing