NXS: Erik Jones Tops Boyd Gaming 300 Practice; Cope Makes Contact with Wall

The speed that allowed Joe Gibbs Racing to be fast last weekend in Atlanta Motor Speedway and take two of the top-five spots in the finishing order, including the victory with Kyle Busch, has carried over to Las Vegas.

Erik Jones topped the charts with a lap of 29.493 seconds in the first of two practices on Friday for the Boyd Gaming 300. Jones enters this weekend with momentum after finishing third last weekend despite having a restart penalty.

RELATED: Erik Jones Overcomes Jumped Start to Finish Third

Daniel Suarez joined his JGR teammate at the top of the charts, finishing up in the second spot, just 0.032 seconds behind Jones. Suarez also had a solid run last weekend en route to finishing seventh.

Richard Childress Racing led the majority of the session, but was topped by JGR in the final minutes. Brendan Gaughan led the way in third, followed by Brandon Jones and Austin Dillon. Dillon dominated the race last year en route to victory.

“We were pretty dominant here last year so we brought a similar set-up,” Dillon said. “We were a little off from where we were on speed last year, but they brought a different tire, so we’ll make a couple adjustments and work on race trim.”

Kyle Busch was sixth quickest, followed by Ty Dillon, Chase Elliott, Darrell Wallace Jr. and Aric Almirola.

The practice didn’t go smoothly for everyone as Derrick Cope would make contact with the wall with 15 minutes remaining in the practice after what looked to be a right front tire going down. Cope will go to a back-up car.

The NASCAR XFINITY Series has a second practice at 3pm local time (6pm EST), followed by qualifying and the race on Saturday.