NCWTS: Rhodes Leads Second Alpha Energy Solutions 250 Practice as Gala and Decker Spin

While William Byron led the first practice, fellow rookie Ben Rhodes would lead the second Alpha Energy Solutions 250 practice at Martinsville Speedway. Rhodes topped the charts with a lap of 19.839 seconds.

Rhodes knows how to get around Martinsville, as he finished eighth in his debut there last season. He also enters this weekend with some momentum after finishing sixth at Atlanta.

Byron still showed that he was quick, though, as he was second quickest in the session, a couple hundreths off of Rhodes. The Kyle Busch Motorsports driver is looking for a good run after blowing his motor in the last race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The practice was dominated by rookies, as third quickest was also a rookie, in the form of Cole Custer. Custer had one of the fastest trucks at Martinsville in the spring race last year before getting spun out late in the going by Matt Crafton.

Tyler Reddick was fourth quickest in the session, and could use a good run this weekend. He hasn’t started off the year as he hoped with no top-10s after battling for the championship last year. Reddick has done well at Martinsville previously, with three straight top-six finishes.

Spencer Gallagher rounded out the top-five, followed by his GMS Racing teammate Kaz Grala. Grala is making his truck series debut this weekend and didn’t start out the practice as he wanted, going for a spin off of turn four. The team was able to make repairs to the slight rear-end damage and get Grala back on track before the end of the session.

Matt Crafton was seventh quickest, followed by Timothy Peters, Daniel Hemric and Daniel Suarez.

Grala wasn’t the only driver to go for a quick spin, as Claire Decker went around in turn one with 47 minutes remaining on the clock. She did not receive any damage, though.