Ty Dillon paces field in Xfinity Daytona practice

The NASCAR Xfinity Series conducted its first practice session of the year on Friday ahead of Saturday’s Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner. 300 at Daytona International Speedway. By the end of the 50-minute session, Ty Dillon led the way with a lap time of 46.691 at 192.757 mph. It was the series’ first practice since last July for the Pennzoil 150 on the Indianapolis road course.

It has been less than a day since Dillon and Gaunt Brothers Racing failed to qualify for Sunday’s Daytona 500 after a heartbreaking DNQ in his Bluegreen Vacations Duel on Thursday night. However, he will still get a chance to run a race during the weekend as he joined Joe Gibbs Racing‘s #54 for a four-round Xfinity schedule. Dillon also declared for Xfinity points for the first time since his final full-time season in the series in 2016.

“Felt good to get back on track in the NASCAR Xfinity Series,” Dillon posted on social media. “The Bass Pro Shops Toyota Supra has some speed and looks great!”

Riley Herbst, a former JGR driver who migrated to Stewart-Haas Racing‘s #98 for the 2021 season, was the second fastest at 46.756 seconds. Reigning champ Austin Cindric, who made the 500 at Dillon’s expense, was third ahead of rookie Josh Berry, the latter of whom was the quickest Chevrolet. Josh Williams did not set a time after his car stalled.

Similar to the Cup and Camping World Truck Series‘ sessions, the Xfinity practice saw a mixture of strategies as some teams worked on their drafting while others focused on single-car runs for qualifying. Unlike the other two national series, the results varied with few team-mates and drivers with mutual manufacturers next to each other.

Qualifying will take place on Saturday morning while the race is scheduled for the evening. Forty-five drivers are entered, and all but nine will make the race as fields for races with qualifying will be maxed out at thirty-six; those without the session will have forty at the most.

Practice results

Position	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Best Time	Best Speed (mph)	Laps
1	54	Ty Dillon	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	46.691	192.757	13
2	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	46.756	192.489	16
3	22	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	46.783	192.378	19
4	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	46.786	192.365	17
5	18	Daniel Hemric	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	47.017	191.420	10
6	19	Brandon Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	47.018	191.416	13
7	11	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	47.538	189.322	6
8	2	Myatt Snider	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	47.702	188.671	5
9	20	Harrison Burton	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	47.734	188.545	18
10	02	Brett Moffitt*	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	47.754	188.466	9
11	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	47.796	188.300	10
12	1	Michael Annett	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	47.824	188.190	4
13	91	Mario Gosselin	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	47.834	188.151	11
14	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	47.861	188.045	4
15	44	Tommy Joe Martins	Martins Motorsports	Chevrolet	47.906	187.868	5
16	10	Jeb Burton	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	47.929	187.778	6
17	9	Noah Gragson	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	47.934	187.758	10
18	26	Brandon Gdovic	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	47.951	187.692	6
19	36	Alex Labbé	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	47.964	187.641	10
20	31	Jordan Anderson	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	47.973	187.606	5
21	90	Caesar Bacarella	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	47.990	187.539	16
22	15	Colby Howard	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	47.998	187.508	11
23	16	AJ Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	48.014	187.445	5
24	4	Landon Cassill	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	48.020	187.422	6
25	5	Matt Mills	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	48.081	187.184	5
26	99	Stefan Parsons	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	48.094	187.134	5
27	25	Chris Cockrum	ACG Motorsports	Chevrolet	48.131	186.990	5
28	0	Jeffrey Earnhardt	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	48.226	186.621	3
29	68	Brandon Brown	Brandonbilt Motorsports	Chevrolet	48.239	186.571	4
30	03	Tyler Reddick*	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	48.270	186.451	5
31	48	Danny Bohn*	Big Machine Racing	Chevrolet	48.284	186.397	9
32	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	48.294	186.359	5
33	74	Bayley Currey*	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet	48.294	186.359	5
34	23	Jason White	RSS Racing	Ford	48.306	186.312	3
35	17	Cody Ware*	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet	48.353	186.131	4
36	07	Joe Graf Jr.	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet	48.377	186.039	5
37	6	Ryan Vargas	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	48.402	185.943	6
38	66	Timmy Hill	MBM Motorsports	Ford	48.402	185.943	7
39	52	Gray Gaulding	Jimmy Means Racing	Chevrolet	48.563	185.326	4
40	13	Chad Finchum	MBM Motorsports	Ford	48.785	184.483	5
41	77	Ronnie Bassett Jr.	Bassett Racing	Chevrolet	48.980	183.748	5
42	78	Jesse Little	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	48.985	183.730	3
43	61	Robby Lyons	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	49.116	183.240	5
44	47	Kyle Weatherman	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet	49.448	182.009	6
45	92	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	No Time	No Time	N/A