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For the first time since 2019, NASCAR is racing at Chicagoland Speedway. Because of that fact, series officials went with a more traditional race weekend format through a 50-minute practice on Friday.
Topping the speed charts was Riley Herbst in the No. 35 23XI Racing Toyota, followed by teammate Bubba Wallace. Herbst lapped the intermediate oval in 30.326 seconds (178.065mph), just 0.023s ahead of Wallace in the No. 23 Toyota.
Kyle Larson was one of three Cup drivers who took part in a test at Chicagoland earlier this year (along with Hamlin and Blaney), and he led the way for Chevrolet in third. Behind the Hendrick Chevy was the Joe Gibbs Racing duo of Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs.
All four 23XI drivers ended the session in the top eight, with Corey Heim sixth and Tyler Reddick eighth. Reddick also led the way in the ten-lap, 15-lap, 20-lap, and 25-lap averages. Additionally, Reddick ran more laps than any other driver at 61.
There were no incidents, but Erik Jones felt like something broke after going over the rough bumps, and took his No. 43 to the garage. Several drivers also missed the tight turn-in to get onto the pit lane as they practiced their pit-in, which will be something to watch on Sunday.
“Today was a bit weird”
Few drivers ventured into the higher grooves, and no one dared to run right along the outside wall. Reddick hopes that the NASCAR O’Reilly cars (which race on Saturday) will widen out the racing groove. He was also confused by the lack of tire falloff, even with the aged surface.
“I think our Camry is really good,” said Reddick. “We don’t get a lot of 50 minute practices anymore, but today was a bit weird. The falloff was pretty flat. This is the tire we run at other intermediates where we see a lot of tire falloff. The surface has age to it, but it was just strange. It didn’t act like the surface is as old as it is. You’re just trying to understand what we can fine tune on our Toyota Camry.
“In general, pretty happy. Feeling pretty good about where we’re at. I guess the only thing I’m holding back on — just confused about — I thought we were going to be ripping the top today, but it just took forever to clean up. Hopefully those O’Reilly boys will go clean it up for us and we have a wide race track to work with.”
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