Race Weekend Central

William Byron Tops Opening Truck Series Practice at Homestead

Frontstretch’s Truck Series content is presented by American Trucks

A week after his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series title chances ended with 12 laps to go, William Byron fought back from Phoenix disaster to lead the way in opening practice of championship weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Byron posted a lap early on of 31.411 seconds (171.914 mph), more than a tenth of a second quicker than Kyle Larson, who was second best (171.217 mph).

Johnny Sauter turned the quickest speed of the Championship 4 at 171.162 mph, good enough for third on the chart. Cole Custer was fourth (171.157 mph) and Matt Crafton, the second Championship 4 contender, rounded out the top 5 (171.135 mph).

Tyler Reddick, Ben Kennedy, Ben Rhodes, Daniel Hemric and Spencer Gallagher rounded out the top 10.

Timothy Peters sat just outside the top 10 in 11th, making just seven timed laps in the hour session. Christopher Bell was the slowest of the Championship 4 competitors in 14th, over six tenths off the fast time turned by Byron, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate.

Teams were in tire conservation mode and used just one set during the session, saving some for the race this evening. Austin Hill ran 33 laps, the most of all drivers. Bell was the only one of the four championship eligible competitors who turned more than 10 laps.

Larson, by comparison turned in the least number of circuits.  His lap that ended up second quickest was the only one he turned in the session.

Final practice for the Ford EcoBoost 200 is scheduled to get underway at 10:30 a.m. ET, with qualifying beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET.

Click here for a full list of speeds from the first Truck practice.

About the author

Dustin joined the Frontstretch team at the beginning of the 2016 season. 2020 marks his sixth full-time season covering the sport that he grew up loving. His dream was to one day be a NASCAR journalist, thus why he attended Ithaca College (Class of 2018) to earn a journalism degree. Since the ripe age of four, he knew he wanted to be a storyteller.

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