In his first full season on the Nationwide Series, Chris Buescher was the fastest in Thursday’s second NASCAR NNS practice session at Darlington Raceway for Friday’s VFW Sport Clips Help a Hero 200 race.
The 21-year-old Roush Fenway Racing driver was the only driver to both exceed 169 mph and 170 mph, clocking in at 170.365 mph.
After failing to qualify for the NNS season-opener at Daytona, Buescher has finished 15th, 9th, 16th, 14th and 27th in his last five starts. He is ranked 11th in the Nationwide points standings heading into Friday night’s race at Darlington.
Sprint Cup regular Kyle Busch was second-fastest at 168.758 mph, followed by Ty Dillon (168.469), Trevor Bayne (168.296) and last week’s winner at Texas, Chase Elliott (168.117).
Texas Sprint Cup race winner Joey Logano, who was the fastest in the first practice session Thursday afternoon, was seventh-fastest in the second session.
Here’s how Thursday’s second Nationwide Series practice session played out:
1 Chris Buescher 170.365 mph
2 Kyle Busch 168.578
3 Ty Dillon 168.469
4 Trevor Bayne 168.296
5 Chase Elliott 168.117
6 Brian Scott 168.031
7 Joey Logano 168.025
8 Kyle Larson 167.705
9 Matt Kenseth 167.442
10 Kevin Harvick 167.197
11 Elliott Sadler 167.072
12 Regan Smith 167.010
13 Cole Conley 166.862
14 Ryan Reed 166.721
15 Brendan Gaughan 166.309
16 David Starr 166.259
17 JJ Yeley 165.531
18 Landon Cassill 165.275
19 Dakoda Armstrong 165.148
20 Jeremy Clements 164.948
21 Ryan Sieg 164.948
22 Dylan Kwasniewski 164.749
23 James Buescher 164.689
24 Mike Wallace 163.936
25 Mike Bliss 163.664
26 Tanner Berryhill 163.132
27 Josh Wise 162.883
28 Kevin LePage 162.485
29 Eric McClure 162.292
30 Todd Bodine 161.694
31 Matt DiBenedetto 161.524
32 Jeffrey Earnhardt 160.769
33 Tommy Joe Martins 160.318
34 Carlos Contreras 160.151
35 Derrike Cope 159.652
36 Matt Carter 157.889
37 Blake Koch 157.303
38 Joey Gase 157.252
39 Mike Harmon 151.199
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