ROCKINGHAM, N.C. – Joey Logano led ARCA RE/MAX Series practice Friday at Rockingham Speedway, but only in the final minutes of the three-hour session as festivities began for Sunday’s Carolina 500 – the reopening of “The Rock”.
Throughout Friday’s practice at the 1-mile track, Matt Carter, the series point leader and son of former NASCAR crew chief and team owner Travis Carter, sat atop the speed chart. But in the session’s final minutes, Logano’s team placed a new set of tires on his Joe Gibbs Racing Oil-Gresham & Associates Chevrolet, allowing him to leap over Carter and into the No. 1 position with a 25.111-second, 143.363-mph lap. Carter, in his Stine Seed-NuSouth Lemonade Ford, wasn’t far behind at 25.121 seconds, 143.306 mph.
“We came off the trailer nothing like the test,” said Logano, who will make his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut next month for Joe Gibbs Racing. “I wasn’t happy at all. We had to work at lot harder in practice and got it closer to where I wanted it. (We) made some mock runs, made it a little better with the mock run. But, I don’t know if that Happy Hour deal is gonna help us out a whole lot.”
Rounding out the top five, respectively, were Michael Annett and Justin Marks, both in Toyotas, and Dexter Bean in a Chevrolet.
Austin Dillon, grandson of NASCAR championship car owner Richard Childress, posted the 13th quickest lap. Driving his Garage Equipment Supply Chevrolet, Dillon recorded a lap of 25.852-second, 139.254-mph lap.
Defending series champion Frank Kimmel was 17th quickest, while Chad McCumbee was 18th fastest.
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular Johnny Benson, a former Cup winner at Rockingham, practiced Ken Schrader’s Four Winds Motorhomes Dodge. Schrader was in Richmond for NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifying. He will be at Rockingham Saturday for qualifying.
Veteran James Hylton, who finished second to Richard Petty in the NASCAR Grand National [now Sprint Cup] standings in 1967, hit the wall during practice and had to settle for 48th quickest.
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