Alex Bowman leads first Cup practice on Bristol dirt

Bowman, who drives the No. 48 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports and has done some dirt racing in his career, had the fastest average single-lap speed at 89.307 mph, which he set early in the 50-minute session.

“It’s a lot of fun for sure,” Bowman said. “I’m pretty happy with our Ally Camaro. Everybody at Hendrick Motorsports has worked really hard guessing, I guess, on the dirt side of things and trying to use the little bit of knowledge that we do have.

“It’s a lot fun; It’s a blast going around here. It’d going pretty well so far. I feel like on long runs we’re lacking. I’ve just been running the right-rear (tire) off. We’ll keep working on it.

“I’m definitely happy to be P1 after practice but we definitely have some work to do.”

Christopher Bell, who has an extensive and successful dirt racing background, ended up second-fastest and set his quick time late in the session (88.998 mph). His Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Kyle Busch, was third (88.897 mph).

Denny Hamlin was fourth and Kyle Larson rounded out the top-five.

Rounding out the top-10 were Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Cole Custer, William Byron and rookie Chase Briscoe.

The session was slowed by caution just a couple times – once for a spin by Martin Truex Jr. and with just under five minutes to go in the session, J.J. Yeley spun off Turn 4 and hit the barrels protecting the end of the pit road wall.

Among the drivers who ran at least 10 consecutive laps, Larson had the fastest average lap followed by Bowman, Truex, Elliott and Custer.

Cla	#	Driver		Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	48	Alex Bowman		Chevrolet	42	20.155			89.308
2	20	Christopher Bell		Toyota	46	20.225	0.070	0.070	88.999
3	18	Kyle Busch		Toyota	57	20.248	0.093	0.023	88.898
4	11	Denny Hamlin		Toyota	42	20.266	0.111	0.018	88.819
5	5	Kyle Larson		Chevrolet	46	20.314	0.159	0.048	88.609
6	9	Chase Elliott		Chevrolet	68	20.334	0.179	0.020	88.522
7	22	Joey Logano		Ford	58	20.434	0.279	0.100	88.088
8	41	Cole Custer		Ford	39	20.523	0.368	0.089	87.706
9	24	William Byron		Chevrolet	36	20.535	0.380	0.012	87.655
10	14	Chase Briscoe		Ford	39	20.548	0.393	0.013	87.600
11	6	Ryan Newman		Ford	47	20.550	0.395	0.002	87.591
12	17	Chris Buescher		Ford	49	20.557	0.402	0.007	87.561
13	19	Martin Truex Jr.		Toyota	44	20.568	0.413	0.011	87.515
14	4	Kevin Harvick		Ford	47	20.574	0.419	0.006	87.489
15	8	Tyler Reddick		Chevrolet	38	20.595	0.440	0.021	87.400
16	7	Corey Lajoie		Chevrolet	46	20.626	0.471	0.031	87.268
17	37	Ryan Preece		Chevrolet	58	20.650	0.495	0.024	87.167
18	42	Ross Chastain		Chevrolet	49	20.707	0.552	0.057	86.927
19	21	Matt DiBenedetto		Ford	34	20.711	0.556	0.004	86.910
20	10	Aric Almirola		Ford	45	20.717	0.562	0.006	86.885
21	38	Anthony Alfredo		Ford	43	20.728	0.573	0.011	86.839
22	1	Kurt Busch		Chevrolet	50	20.751	0.596	0.023	86.743
23	43	Erik Jones		Chevrolet	26	20.760	0.605	0.009	86.705
24	99	Daniel Suarez		Chevrolet	66	20.771	0.616	0.011	86.659
25	53	J.J. Yeley		Chevrolet	33	20.776	0.621	0.005	86.638
26	2	Brad Keselowski		Ford	46	20.781	0.626	0.005	86.618
27	23	Bubba Wallace		Toyota	39	20.794	0.639	0.013	86.563
28	96	Ty Dillon		Toyota	41	20.796	0.641	0.002	86.555
29	77	Stewart Friesen		Chevrolet	31	20.810	0.655	0.014	86.497
30	34	Michael McDowell		Ford	55	20.818	0.663	0.008	86.464
31	12	Ryan Blaney		Ford	44	20.838	0.683	0.020	86.381
32	3	Austin Dillon		Chevrolet	50	20.840	0.685	0.002	86.372
33	00	Quin Houff		Chevrolet	40	20.852	0.697	0.012	86.323
34	15	Chris Windom		Chevrolet	35	20.866	0.711	0.014	86.265
35	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		Chevrolet	53	20.898	0.743	0.032	86.133
36	52	Josh Bilicki		Ford	19	20.998	0.843	0.100	85.722
37	78	Shane Golobic		Ford	35	21.012	0.857	0.014	85.665
38	66	Mike Marlar		Toyota	45	21.109	0.954	0.097	85.272
39	51	Cody Ware		Chevrolet	50	21.112	0.957	0.003	85.260