Ty Gibbs posts fastest lap in Xfinity practice at Nashville

LEBANON, Tenn. — Ty Gibbs had the fastest lap in Friday’s 50-minute Xfinity Series practice at Nashville Superspeedway.

Gibbs paced the field with a lap around the 1.33-mile concrete track at 155.520 mph. He was followed by Cole Custer (154.816 mph), Riley Herbst (154.686), Sam Mayer (154.327) and Kyle Sieg (154.079). This is Herbst’s first weekend with new crew chief Davin Restivo, who takes over for Richard Boswell. Boswell was moved to be Chase Briscoe‘s crew chief in the Cup Series.

Gibbs is one of two Cup drivers competing in this weekend’s Xfinity race. AJ Allmendinger also is competing in the Xfinity race. He was 10th on the speed chart.

Chandler Smith ran the most laps in the session with 60. C.J. McLaughlin crashed in the session.

Qualifying will take place at noon ET Saturday on USA Network. The green flag for Saturday’s race on USA is scheduled for 3:48 p.m. ET.

The Cup Series begins 20 consecutive weekends of racing with Sunday’s race at Nashville Superspeedway on NBC.

There have been 10 different winners in the first 16 races. Ten races remain until the playoffs being in September. Sonoma Martin Truex Jr. is looking for his second consecutive victory. Chase Elliott won last year’s Nashville race.

START: Old Dominion will give the command to start engines at 7:12 p.m. … The green flag is scheduled to wave at 7:22 p.m.

PRERACE: Cup garage opens at 4 p.m. … Drivers meeting is at 6:20 p.m. … Driver intros are at 6:35 p.m. … Fort Campbell Chaplain Sharon McQueary will give the invocation at 7:04 p.m. … SFC Christine Permenter of the 101st Airborne Division Band will perform the national anthem at 7:05 p.m.

DISTANCE: The race is 300 laps (399 miles) on the 1.33-mile speedway.

STAGES: Stage 1 ends at Lap 90. Stage