Chase Elliott will hold the distinction of being the fastest driver in the first competitive laps run at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Elliott and his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports team were fastest in Saturday’s practice session at 13.45 seconds (66.89mph). He set the fastest time in his final stint on the track, which was also good enough to be the fastest driver overall in the 36-car field.
NASCAR officials split the field into three groups of 12 drivers each for practice. Each group was given 24 minutes on track but divided that into three different sessions of eight minutes at a time, rotating each group. Elliott was in the third group.
“First off, just props to NASCAR and everybody involved, all the men and women that put a lot of effort into making this happen and building a racetrack and paving it, and just all the logistics that have gone into this,” said Elliott. “Props to everybody for making it happen; I feel like they did a really good job with it. Just the workmanship and everything. Logistics of how this has worked this weekend has really impressed me, so happy to be here.
“I appreciate everybody on the NAPA team for working really hard through the winter; it’s been a really busy winter for all of us. It hasn’t felt like much of an offseason. But super excited to be back, and hopefully, we can make the right decisions tonight and going into tomorrow. I feel like we have a pretty good NAPA Chevy, it’s just about at this point making the right decisions and not letting me mess it up too bad.”
Did we mention it’s a short track!?!? https://t.co/DbYRMqkHcO pic.twitter.com/eZjllKiPJP
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 5, 2022
Kevin Harvick was second fastest at 66.88mph. Harvick’s teammate, Chase Briscoe, was third fastest at 66.81mph.
Briscoe stopped on track in the final moments of his last stint in practice. He told Fox Sports that his team would be fixing a pin that connects to the throttle cable that broke.
Justin Haley was fourth fastest in practice at 66.81mph. Completing the top five was Kyle Busch at 66.75mph.
Tyler Reddick was sixth fastest at 66.65mph, Kyle Larson was seventh fastest at 66.60mph, Landon Cassill was eighth fastest at 65.50mph, Ryan Blaney was ninth fastest at 66.44mph, and Denny Hamlin completed the top 10 at 66.34mph. Reddick ran the most laps in practice at 111.
Rookie Harrison Burton of Wood Brothers Racing will go down as the first driver to get on track at the L.A. Coliseum and in the Next Gen car. Burton led the first group of drivers in practice out of the tunnel to kick things off.
Kyle Busch was fastest in the best 10 consecutive lap average over Elliott, Haley, Harvick, and Larson.
UP NEXT: Single-car qualifying to set the line-up for the heat races at 8:30 p.m. ET.
