NCWTS: John Wes Townley Leads Second Great Clips 200 Practice at Atlanta Motor Speedway

After a solid season last year, John Wes Townley expected to contend for the championship this season. Thus far, he’s off to a solid start.

Townley led the second of three practices for the Great Clips 200 with a lap of 31.107 seconds. Last year, he had a solid season en route to finishing eighth in points, highlighted by a victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Daniel Hemric was second quickest, driving for Brad Keselowski Racing. This weekend will mark his second start with Brad Keselowski Racing after finishing eighth at Daytona. Hemric is entering his second year in the series after running the full schedule last year for NTS Motorsports.

William Byron was third quickest, driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports. Bryon is entering his rookie season in the series after winning the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Championship last season.

JR Motorsports’ Cole Custer was fourth quickest, as he gets set to run the full schedule for the first time in his career. Custer ran a partial schedule last year, running 10 races for JR Motorsports, highlighted by a victory at Gateway Motorsports Park.

Defending race winner Matt Crafton rounded out the top-five. He stated during the first practice session that he feels confident about his chances as he is driving the same chassis that he dominated with at Homestead-Miami Speedway last November.

FROM NASCAR WIRE SERVICE: Matt Crafton attempts to continue dominance on Intermediate Tracks

Ben Kennedy was sixth quickest, followed by Cameron Hayley, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Truex and Christopher Bell. Truex is coming off of runner-up finish at Daytona International Speedway.

Grant Enfinger, who led the first practice, was 11th quickest in this session.

The practice didn’t start out smoothly as Korbin Forrester would spin coming off of pit road.

When you spin leaving pit road pic.twitter.com/HDEkBrCkdR

— Nick Bromberg (@NickBromberg) February 26, 2016

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will return to the track at 4pm EST for their final practice ahead of Saturday’s Great Clips 200.

POS	DRIVER	LAPS	FAST TIME	BEHIND
1	^#5 John Wes Townley	18	31.107	Leader
2	^#19 Daniel Hemric	6	31.182	0.075
3	^#9 William Byron	26	31.257	0.150
4	^#00 Cole Custer	21	31.294	0.187
5	^#88 Matt Crafton	9	31.343	0.236
6	^#11 Ben Kennedy	16	31.375	0.268
7	^#13 Cameron Hayley	21	31.403	0.296
8	^#29 Tyler Reddick	24	31.428	0.321
9	^#81 Ryan Truex	15	31.444	0.337
10	^#4 Christopher Bell	14	31.488	0.381
11	^#33 Grant Enfinger	23	31.530	0.423
12	^#51 Daniel Suarez	22	31.532	0.425
13	^#20 Austin Hill	14	31.534	0.427
14	^#41 Ben Rhodes	24	31.540	0.433
15	^#175 Caleb Holman	9	31.564	0.457
16	^#17 Timothy Peters	21	31.592	0.485
17	^#8 John Hunter Nemechek	20	31.685	0.578
18	^#98 Rico Abreu	24	31.690	0.583
19	^#92 Parker Kligerman	23	31.699	0.592
20	^#21 Johnny Sauter	6	31.700	0.593
21	^#23 Spencer Gallagher	22	31.718	0.611
22	^#132 Justin Marks	15	31.991	0.884
23	^#144 Tommy Joe Martins	14	32.153	1.046
24	^#7 J.J. Yeley	5	32.195	1.088
26	^#186 Brandon Brown	9	32.288	1.181
27	^#266 Jordan Anderson	15	32.429	1.322
28	^#49 Timmy Hill	6	32.437	1.330
29	^#259 Korbin Forrister	20	32.735	1.628
30	^#171 Carlos Contreras	15	32.784	1.677
30	^#1 David Levine	0	0.000	—
31	^#2 Tyler Young	23	32.947	1.840
32	^#63 Garrett Smithley	13	32.982	1.875
33	^#10 Jennifer Jo Cobb	14	33.004	1.897
34	^#6 Norm Benning	5	33.212	2.105
35	^#74 Tim Viens	2	34.369	3.262
37	^#1 Travis Kvapil	0	0.000	—