NXS: David Starr Quickest in Drafting, Suarez Quickest Single-Car Runs in XFINITY Second Practice

In the second of three NASCAR XFINITY Series practices today, five cars would participate in drafting, while the rest of the field worked on single-car runs alone.

TriStar Motorports’ David Starr was quickest of the five drivers that took part in drafting with a speed of 183.516 mph, followed by Brandon Jones, Joe Nemechek, Ryan Preece and Benny Gordon. Notably, Jones makes the move to full-time competition for Richard Childress Racing after a partial schedule last year, while Preece joins JD Motorsports full-time after success in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Series.

Meanwhile, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Daniel Suarez was the quickest of cars that made single-car runs with as peed of 181.273 mph as he enters his sophomore season of competition.

“I’m really proud of all the guys,” he said. “The No. 19 Arris Toyota is really strong. We learned some stuff and thought we may have be a little bit better for the draft, but we’re not bad at all. We’re pretty fast in the draft so we’ll be good to go tomorrow.”

Ty Dillon was second quickest of the single-car runs, 0.045 seconds off of Suarez’s time, after leading the first session of the day. Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Bobby Labonte and Erik Jones would follow, with Roush-Fenway Racing’s Ryan Reed rounding out the top-10.

“We’re pretty happy with where it is on single-car speed, and pretty happy with how it was in the draft earlier,” Jones said. “It’s been a pretty good easy Speedweeks this year and hopefully it stays that way. Chris is getting it felt out in what he needs to do as a new crew chief and we’re working things out.”

The XFINITY Series will return to the track at 3pm EST for their final practice ahead of qualifying and racing on Saturday.