Alex Bowman, Ryan Blaney top Cup Bristol dirt practices

For the first time since 1970, the NASCAR Cup Series officially turned laps on a dirt course. With the Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Motor Speedway two days away, the series conducted two practices on Friday that were led by Alex Bowman and Ryan Blaney.

With the switch from asphalt to dirt, the Cup cars featured various changes from usual, many of which have already been used by the Camping World Truck Series since it began running dirt races in 2013.. For example, the splitter is removed while a different spoiler, ducts, and screens are used. Goodyear also provided a treaded, bias-ply version of its Eagle tyres; it will be first time that the Cup Series used bias ply tyres in a race since 1989.

In Saturday’s four heats to set the field for the Food City Dirt Race, Bowman will start on the pole for Heat #3 while Blaney begins Heat #4 in seventh.

“I don’t know how difficult it is gonna be to pass tomorrow when it comes time for our heat races,” Blaney said in a post-practice media session. “If it’s gonna be just like this today, it wasn’t impossible to pass. If someone missed the bottom and hit a rut wrong or something, you can kind of have forward bite and drive under them. It was tough, but it is what is. You can’t be happy or mad about it. You just try to make the most of it.”

First practice

Bowman was quickly the fastest driver on track ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin, followed by his Hendrick Motorsports team-mates Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott. The first caution of the session came out for debris.

The first driver-related yellow flag came for Martin Truex Jr.‘s spin; he also spun out in the Truck practice an hour prior. Larson, another driver running both series’ races, also went around. Cody Ware produced another caution for his own spin. J.J. Yeley, running his first Cup race of 2021, also fell victim with less than five minutes remaining, leading to a minute of green-flag practice time.

The top five remained mostly unchanged throughout the the hour-long practice until Christopher Bell, a noted dirt ace, shot up to second ahead of his JGR peers with a lap time of 20.225 seconds and speed at 88.999 mph. Nevertheless, Bowman led the way with a 20.155-second fastest lap and 89.309-mph speed. William Byron and Truex, the only Hendrick and JGR drivers to to be with their team-mates, respectively finished ninth and thirteenth. Elliott recorded a session-high sixty-eight laps as he finished sixth.

Joey Logano and Stewart-Haas Racing‘s Cole Custer and Chase Briscoe, the latter of whom is also entered in the Truck race, are the lone drivers in the top ten who do not drove for Hendrick or Gibbs.

Among the four Cup Series newcomers, Truck regular Stewart Friesen was the fastest in twenty-ninth. Chris Windom followed in thirty-fourth followed by Shane Golobic (thirty-seventh) and Mike Marlar (thirty-eighth).

“That was FUN, arguably the most fun I’ve had driving a cup car,” Ware tweeted afterwards.

Position	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Best Time	Best Speed (mph)	Laps
1	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	20.155	89.308	42
2	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	20.225	88.999	46
3	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	20.248	88.898	57
4	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	20.266	88.819	42
5	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	20.314	88.609	46
6	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	20.334	88.522	68
7	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	20.434	88.089	58
8	41	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	20.523	87.707	39
9	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	20.535	87.655	36
10	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	20.548	87.600	39
11	6	Ryan Newman	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	20.550	87.591	47
12	17	Chris Buescher	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	20.557	87.561	49
13	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	20.568	87.515	44
14	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	20.574	87.489	47
15	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	20.595	87.400	38
16	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	20.626	87.269	46
17	37	Ryan Preece	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	20.650	87.167	58
18	42	Ross Chastain	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	20.707	86.927	49
19	21	Matt DiBenedetto	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	20.711	86.910	34
20	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	20.717	86.885	45
21	38	Anthony Alfredo	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	20.728	86.839	43
22	1	Kurt Busch	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	20.751	86.743	50
23	43	Erik Jones	Richard Petty Motorsports	Chevrolet	20.760	86.705	26
24	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	20.771	86.659	66
25	53	J.J. Yeley*	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	20.776	86.638	33
26	2	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Ford	20.781	86.618	46
27	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	20.794	86.563	39
28	96	Ty Dillon*	Gaunt Brothers Racing	Toyota	20.796	86.555	41
29	77	Stewart Friesen*	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	20.810	86.497	31
30	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	20.818	86.464	55
31	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	20.838	86.381	44
32	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	20.840	86.372	50
33	00	Quin Houff	StarCom Racing	Chevrolet	20.852	86.323	40
34	15	Chris Windom	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	20.866	86.265	35
35	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	20.898	86.133	53
36	52	Josh Bilicki	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	20.998	85.722	19
37	78	Shane Golobic	Live Fast Motorsports	Ford	21.012	85.665	35
38	66	Mike Marlar	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	21.109	85.272	45
39	51	Cody Ware*	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	21.112	85.260	50

Final practice

With the Cup and Trucks running multiple practices, the dirt was inevitably going to kick up dust that obscured some driver visibility. Blaney noted “it rained really hard here yesterday. There was a big storm, so maybe they couldn’t work on it as much as they wanted to, but it was like a really thin layer of flaky dirt on top of the black, hard-packed, rubbered down dirt when I walked on it this morning.

“Then that went off pretty quickly. The trucks run that off fast, so I’m not sure what they could do, unless you water it and till the whole thing and just kind of churn all the dirt over that you can to try to make it last a little bit longer, but you’re kind of handcuffed because we’ve got windshields in these things. You can’t make it super tacky to where mud is flying everywhere, so I’m not sure. I just wish it was a little bit smoother because there are so many ruts and things like that, but maybe they’ll be able to put their heads together and work on it.”

Although it was a greater concern during the first practice, he added that things got “better when the sun went down. Right before that it was pretty dusty and the sun was hitting it and it was hard to see, but not bad.”

The lone caution of the day came for Custer spinning. Meanwhile, Blaney was the fastest at 20.172 seconds and 89.233 mph on his first lap, ahead of Bowman and Hamlin. Hamlin turned eighty laps, more than any driver in either series.

Larson, who was fifteenth fastest, exited the practice due to engine damage and spiking temperatures that have forced the #5 Hendrick team to replace the injured component. As a result, he will start both Saturday’s heat and Sunday’s race from the back; he was initially set to roll off second in Heat #1.

Josh Bilicki elected to skip the practice to preserve his #52 for the Saturday heat and Sunday’s race.

“Man, this was the most fun I’ve had driving a racecar in a long time! First time on dirt and we fired off right on pace,” Bilicki tweeted. “We opted to skip second practice to save the car for the rest of the weekend. Crazy how much the track changes. All a big learning curve, but I love it!”

Position	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Best Time	Best Speed (mph)	Laps
1	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	20.172	89.233	67
2	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	20.194	89.135	43
3	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	20.228	88.986	80
4	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	20.262	88.836	69
5	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	20.313	88.613	51
6	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	20.319	88.587	66
7	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	20.320	88.583	54
8	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	20.321	88.578	67
9	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	20.410	88.192	57
10	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	20.415	88.171	64
11	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	20.428	88.114	40
12	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	20.451	88.015	53
13	21	Matt DiBenedetto	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	20.460	87.977	54
14	2	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Toyota	20.461	87.972	69
15	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	20.466	87.951	35
16	42	Ross Chastain	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	20.467	87.947	59
17	37	Ryan Preece	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	20.485	87.869	75
18	38	Anthony Alfredo	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	20.516	87.736	60
19	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	20.520	87.719	56
20	41	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	20.545	87.613	65
21	17	Chris Buescher	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	20.565	87.527	71
22	6	Ryan Newman	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	20.566	87.523	56
23	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	20.568	87.515	62
24	1	Kurt Busch	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	20.581	87.459	58
25	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	20.594	87.404	61
26	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	20.642	87.201	49
27	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	20.680	87.041	78
28	15	Chris Windom	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	20.686	87.015	41
29	51	Cody Ware*	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	20.687	87.011	17
30	77	Stewart Friesen*	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	20.690	86.999	28
31	96	Ty Dillon*	Gaunt Brothers Racing	Toyota	20.723	86.860	49
32	43	Erik Jones	Richard Petty Motorsports	Chevrolet	20.732	86.822	43
33	53	J.J. Yeley*	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	20.752	86.739	27
34	00	Quin Houff	StarCom Racing	Chevrolet	20.799	86.543	16
35	66	Mike Marlar	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	20.845	86.352	49
36	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	20.845	86.352	60
37	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	20.875	86.228	67
38	78	Shane Golobic	Live Fast Motorsports	Ford	20.896	86.141	48
39	52	Josh Bilicki	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	No Time	No Time	N/A