CONCORD, N.C. -- NASCAR announced a rare race-day practice session after rain washed out most of practice Friday.
Cup teams will practice from 10:30 - 11:30 a.m. ET Saturday. There will be no TV coverage of the practice. The session will be open to all teams regardless if they are in the Monster Energy All-Star Race or Monster Open preliminary race.
Rain twice delayed practice Friday and caused the rest of the session to be canceled. No driver turned more than five laps in the session.
Practice is important this weekend because teams are using a different aero package and have restrictor plates. This is the only time this season they’ll use this setup, which is being evaluated for use in other races next season. Because the setups are so different and teams had such little practice time Friday, NASCAR added the session.
“If we got a practice session, I think you would see cars get in a pack or at least behind teammates,’’ said Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who will start second.
Teams have little idea how the cars will react in traffic and behind each other. The aero package is designed to help keep cars closer together and for a trailing car to close the gap on a car ahead of it.