Ryan Blaney Leads Way in NASCAR Cup Championship Practice at Phoenix
Ryan Blaney is on an eerily similar path that he took to his first NASCAR Cup Series championship a season ago. Last year, he finished second at Homestead, and won at Martinsville to secure his place in the Championship 4 at Phoenix, where he locked up the title. This year, he finished second at Homestead, won Martinsville, and he's back in the Championship 4 again. Could it be deja vu all over again for Blaney?
Perhaps. The driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse was the fastest of all drivers in the 40-car field in practice for Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race. Blaney's fastest lap in the session was a 27.174 seconds (132.479 mph) lap. While single-lap practice speed doesn't mean much, Blaney will carry a minor mental edge over his fellow Championship 4 contenders heading into Saturday's qualifying session.
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And he'll carry the confidence of knowing he was the fastest driver over the course of five-lap, 10-lap, and 15-lap consecutive runs in the session.
Martin Truex Jr., who is running a throwback paint scheme honoring his first career NASCAR Cup Series start in 2004, was second fastest and was just 0.032 seconds off of the fast time set by Blaney. The driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry XSE is competing in the last race of his final full-time NASCAR Cup Series season.
Kyle Larson, who narrowly missed out on advancing to the Championship 4, will be looking to end what had been a really good season until the Round of 8 of the Playoffs with a seventh win. Larson was third fastest in practice.
Right behind Larson on the speed charts was his Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron, who is inside of the Championship 4 field. Byron won the pole for this race a season ago, but wound up third in the Championship standings.
As far as longer run speed, Byron was ninth-best on 5-lap, fifth-fastest on 10-lap, and third on 15-lap consecutive averages. Byron seems to have a really good car underneath him this weekend at the 1-mile oval in Avondale, Arizona.
Austin Cindric turned the fifth-fastest lap of the session, and he was followed by Corey LaJoie, Ty Gibbs, Denny Hamlin, another Championship 4 contender in Joey Logano, and Chase Briscoe who rounded out the top-10 in practice.
Logano, like Blaney and Byron had really decent long run speed as he had the fourth-best 15-lap consecutive average.
Tyler Reddick was the lone Championship 4 driver outside of the top-10 fastest in the session. Reddick ranked 21st-fastest in practice in single-lap speed with a fast lap of 27.524 seconds.
While Reddick was sluggish in single-car speed, his car had indications that it is set up for the long run as he was 19th in 5-lap, 10th in 10-lap, and 11th in 15-lap consecutive averages. Reddick also had the fifth-best overall cumulative lap average in the session at 27.803 seconds.
The only incident in the practice session was a harmless spin by seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson early in the practice. Johnson wound up 35th of 40 in the session in the No. 84 LEGACY MOTOR CLUB Toyota Camry XSE.
The next on-track activity for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 drivers as well as the other 36 cars in the field will be qualifying, which will take place on Saturday, November 9. That qualifying session will behin at 5:00 PM ET with television coverage on USA Network.
And then the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race is set for Sunday, November 10. The final race of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season will be televised on NBC. The Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will carry the live radio broadcast of the event.
Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.