Toyota topped the speed charts in Saturday's practice for Sunday's AdventHealth 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway.
KANSAS CITY, Kansas -- Toyota topped the speed charts in Saturday's practice for Sunday's AdventHealth 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway.
23XI Racing drivers Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace traded off topping the speed charts, with Reddick and Wallace having the fastest overall times and Wallace and Reddick having the best 10 consecutive lap averages.
Reddick's fastest practice lap was 29.559 seconds, compared to Wallace's 29.665. Wallace's fastest 10-lap average was 30.217 seconds, compared to Reddick's 30.219.
23XI Racing boss Denny Hamlin was not far behind, in third overall with a lap time of 29.765 seconds.
Hamlin won the most recent intermediate track race, last month at Las Vegas, and dominated the most recent Kansas race. However, Saturday's practice left him wanting a little more from his No. 11 Toyota Camry XSE.
"It [The car in practice] was okay. Good short run speed and struggled on the long run but we'll work on it. We definitely need to make a few adjustments for tomorrow and we can be right where we need to be," Hamlin told MRN Radio.
Directly behind him on the overall chart were two of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates: Chase Briscoe (29.841) and Ty Gibbs (29.942). Teammate Christopher Bell posted a time of 30.012 seconds and was eighth-fastest overall but fastest in Group A, which was generally slower than Group B.
Bell, Hamlin, Briscoe and Gibbs ranked third, fifth, sixth and eighth on the 10-lap average chart.
Ford's Chris Buescher particularly broke through the Toyota quagmire in practice. He was sixth-fastest overall in practice but fourth-fastest on the 10-lap average chart.
Buescher has either started or finished second in the spring Kansas race the last two years, including in 2024 when he led 53 laps but came up second to Kyle Larson in the closest finish in series history. A year later, he started second to Larson.
"Practice was really strong for us. It's a good start," Buescher said, smiling, to MRN.
Larson, who has won the last two spring races and has never finished worse than second in this race in the NextGen era, wasn't noticeably fast at all Saturday. He was 25th-fastest overall (30.356) and wasn't on track long enough at one time to make the 10-lap average chart.
Spire Motorsports took on being the banner Chevrolet team in practice. Daniel Suarez and Carson Hocevar were seventh-fastest (29.993) and 10th-fastest (30.081). Hendrick Motorsports weren't too far off, with Chase Elliott running ninth-fastest overall (30.036) and on the 10-lap average, with Alex Bowman not far behind in each metric (13th, 10th).
Teammate William Byron was 19th overall (30.265) and 13th on the 10-lap average. He described the handling as "neutral."
Team Penske driver Joey Logano had a slow practice session, running 36th overall (30.593) and 30th on the 10-lap average. However, like the aforementioned Larson, he had a much better qualifying session:
