NASCAR Kansas: Reddick tops Cup practice, drama for playoff drivers

The top speeds from Saturday practice came from the first 20-minute session with Reddick’s average lap speed of 178.807 mph leading the way.

William Byron ended up second quick (177.760 mph) and Bubba Wallace was third (177.690 mph.

Last week’s race winner, Kyle Larson, led the second session (177.619 mph) but was fourth fastest overall.

Playoff drivers Byron and Kyle Busch had issues during the practice as did Ty Gibbs. Busch and Gibbs both hit the wall.

Among those drivers who ran at least 10 consecutive laps, Reddick had the best average speed (176.052 mph). Larson and Gibbs were second and third, respectively, in that category.

Group A

Reddick was first on the track and went right to the top of the speed chart with an average lap speed of 178.807 mph.

Byron was second fastest (177.760 mph) while Wallace was third (177.690 mph). Ryan Blaney was fourth and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rounded out the top five.

Among other playoff drivers in Group A, Martin Truex Jr. was sixth fastest and Kevin Harvick was 10^th.

After his opening eight laps on the track, Byron took his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet back to pit road and his team went under the hood to address an issue with the upper control arm of the car.

“I knew it was something steering issue,” Byron said. “When we got the car back here, we found it was a broken right-front suspension piece. We should be able to fix the car.”

While Byron will be able to qualify, he will have to start Sunday’s race from the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments.

Group B

Larson led the way in the second 20-minute session with an average lap speed of 177.619 mph.

Gibbs was second quick (176.718 mph) and Denny Hamlin was third (176.171 mph). Ross Chastain was fourth and Daniel Suarez fifth.

As for the other playoff drivers in Group B, Michael McDowell was sixth, Christopher Bell seventh, Chris Buescher eighth, Kyle Busch ninth, Brad Keselowski 12^th and Joey Logano 13^th.

Halfway through the session, Busch hit the wall between Turns 3 and 4 and suffered a right-rear flat tire along with some body damage to his No. 8 Chevrolet.

The incident brought a halt to the session for several minutes to clear the track of debris.

“Just like every other weekend, always put ourselves in a hole and have to dig ourselves out,” Busch said. “Here we are starting last again.”

Late in the session, Gibbs had a right-rear tire go down and hit the wall, doing some damage to his No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.