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Austin Cindric tops Xfinity practice at Indy Road Course

Reigning Xfinity Series champion Austin Cindric led the way on Friday in the series’ only practice session on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course.

Watch: Take a lap around the Indianapolis Road Course with Austin Cindric

Cindric, who already has five wins on road courses in his NASCAR career, topped the practice 50-minute session with a best single-lap speed of 95.154 mph.

It’s the second consecutive season the Xfinity Series has competed on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course. Chase Briscoe won last year’s inaugural race while Cindric led half the 42 laps but ended up fifth.

“I got a fast Ford Mustang,” Cindric said. “As much as I’d like to tell you that practice matters, it certainly doesn’t – we haven’t had it all year. But a solid day so far for us.

“I think we have a lot of good data points on this (new) tire from COTA, Road America, Mid-Ohio. I think we’ve had to do a bit of homework on this time – it’s thrown us a bit of a loop.

“I’d like to think we’re reeling back in on it but we probably won’t know until (Saturday).”

Sam Mayer, fresh off a solid 10th-place finish last weekend at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International in just his fifth series start, ended up second-fastest in the session (94.965 mph).

“For a road course, that was pretty close,” said Mayer, 18. “This is the best car I’ve had so far this year and obviously, we have a lot of speed.

JR Motorsports put a really good piece together and I just need to go out there and finish the deal. We need to go out there and qualify up front, hopefully lead a couple laps and lead the last one.

“Hopefully we can keep this momentum up. We need this change in luck for sure.”

Justin Haley ended up third-fastest, Kevin Harvick was fourth and A.J. Allmendinger rounded out the top-five.

Completing the top-10 were Riley Herbst, Noah Gragson, Jeb Burton, last weekend’s race winner Ty Gibbs and Alex Labbe.

There were no serious incidents in the practice. Michael Annett went off course in Turn 7 on his second lap. He made it back to the garage but never returned to the track.

Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Mph
1 22 United States Austin Cindric Ford 14 1'32.276     95.154
2 8 Sam Mayer Chevrolet 17 1'32.459 0.183 0.183 94.965
3 11 United States Justin Haley Chevrolet 17 1'32.601 0.325 0.142 94.820
4 99 United States Kevin Harvick Toyota 12 1'32.689 0.413 0.088 94.730
5 16 United States A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 6 1'32.708 0.432 0.019 94.710
6 98 Riley Herbst Ford 19 1'32.931 0.655 0.223 94.483
7 9 United States Noah Gragson Chevrolet 16 1'32.967 0.691 0.036 94.446
8 10 United States Jeb Burton Chevrolet 13 1'33.157 0.881 0.190 94.254
9 54 Ty Gibbs Toyota 15 1'33.160 0.884 0.003 94.251
10 36 Canada Alex Labbé Chevrolet 10 1'33.195 0.919 0.035 94.215
11 19 United States Brandon Jones Toyota 18 1'33.201 0.925 0.006 94.209
12 31 United States Sage Karam Chevrolet 13 1'33.281 1.005 0.080 94.128
13 7 United States Justin Allgaier Chevrolet 17 1'33.313 1.037 0.032 94.096
14 02 United States Brett Moffitt Chevrolet 13 1'33.359 1.083 0.046 94.050
15 20 United States Harrison Burton Toyota 17 1'33.384 1.108 0.025 94.025
16 18 United States Daniel Hemric Toyota 22 1'33.421 1.145 0.037 93.987
17 2 United States Myatt Snider Chevrolet 8 1'33.498 1.222 0.077 93.910
18 24 United States Will Rodgers Toyota 14 1'33.581 1.305 0.083 93.827
19 90 Preston Pardus Chevrolet 14 1'33.783 1.507 0.202 93.625
20 78 United States Andy Lally Chevrolet 15 1'33.883 1.607 0.100 93.525
21 92 United States Josh Williams Chevrolet 13 1'33.904 1.628 0.021 93.504
22 07 United States Josh Bilicki Chevrolet 15 1'33.941 1.665 0.037 93.467
23 68 United States Brandon Brown Chevrolet 11 1'33.959 1.683 0.018 93.449
24 15 United States Mike Skeen Chevrolet 10 1'33.970 1.694 0.011 93.438
25 48 United States Jade Buford Chevrolet 14 1'34.003 1.727 0.033 93.406
26 44 United States Tommy Joe Martins Chevrolet 13 1'34.089 1.813 0.086 93.320
27 66 Matt Jaskol Toyota 13 1'34.149 1.873 0.060 93.261
28 23 United States Austin Dillon Chevrolet 13 1'34.156 1.880 0.007 93.254
29 51 United States Jeremy Clements Chevrolet 6 1'34.236 1.960 0.080 93.175
30 0 United States Spencer Pumpelly Chevrolet 15 1'34.270 1.994 0.034 93.141
31 47 United States Kyle Weatherman Chevrolet 17 1'34.291 2.015 0.021 93.120
32 4 United States Landon Cassill Chevrolet 15 1'34.354 2.078 0.063 93.058
33 33 Netherlands Loris Hezemans Toyota 18 1'34.377 2.101 0.023 93.035
34 61 United States Austin Hill Toyota 13 1'34.457 2.181 0.080 92.957
35 39 United States Ryan Sieg Chevrolet 15 1'34.501 2.225 0.044 92.913
36 74 United States Bayley Currey Chevrolet 19 1'34.637 2.361 0.136 92.780
37 17 United States J.J. Yeley Chevrolet 9 1'34.922 2.646 0.285 92.501
38 42 Italy Giorgio Maggi Chevrolet 17 1'34.923 2.647 0.001 92.500
39 13 United States Stephen Leicht Toyota 11 1'34.947 2.671 0.024 92.477
40 52 United States Gray Gaulding Chevrolet 15 1'35.019 2.743 0.072 92.407
41 26 United States Kris Wright Toyota 13 1'35.124 2.848 0.105 92.305
42 6 United States Ryan Eversley Chevrolet 14 1'36.043 3.767 0.919 91.422
43 5 United Kingdom Kyle Tilley Chevrolet 14 1'36.889 4.613 0.846 90.623
44 1 United States Michael Annett Chevrolet 2 1'52.344 20.068 15.455 78.156

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