Richard Childress Racing teammates Austin Dillon and Daniel Hemric were fastest in Friday’s NASCAR Cup pre-qualifying practice session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Dillon paced the 38 cars that took to the track with a speed of 180.294 mph. Hemric was close behind in second place at 180.078 mph.
Denny Hamlin was third fastest (180.030 mph), followed by Chase Elliott (179.820), William Byron (179.718)
Sixth through 10th were Aric Almirola (179.474), Kyle Busch (179.378), Bubba Wallace (179.075), Clint Bowyer (179.027) and Chris Buescher (179.027).
Of note, several drivers and teams took part in drafting, which is typically unusual at a track like LVMS. But with the new aero package in use this weekend, speeds were enhanced for several cars by utilizing drafting.
Qualifying for Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 takes place this evening at 7:40 p.m. ET (multi-vehicle, three rounds) (FS1, Performance Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).