NASCAR had all the cars practice together for just 30 minutes because bad weather was expected. They had to stop once because of light rain.
Joey Logano was the fastest, with an average lap speed of 138.024 mph. He won the first Cup race at this 1.25-mile oval near St. Louis. This race is important for him because he needs a good finish. He’s 17th in the standings with only one top-five and three top-10 finishes this season. But he did win the $1 million NASCAR All-Star Race last month.
Logano said, “We definitely got a lot of speed. It feels pretty good inside the car. That’s the best feeling, right, when it drives good and it feels good. You got speed in it. For whatever reason, this has been one of our better race tracks for Penske in general.”
Ryan Blaney, the current series champion, was the second fastest at 138.019 mph. He’s also searching for his first win this season.
Ty Gibbs, who won the pole last weekend at Charlotte, was third fastest. Then came Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace from the 23XI Racing team.
The top-10 also included Austin Cindric, Ross Chastain, last weekend’s winner Christopher Bell, Michael McDowell, and Martin Truex Jr.
When they looked at drivers who ran at least 10 laps in a row, Logano was still the fastest. Cindric and Blaney followed right behind him in second and third place.
