Dale Earnhardt Jr. leads Chevy onslaught in first Sprint Cup practice at Charlotte - MotorSportsTalk

It was a Chevrolet onslaught, led by Dale Earnhardt Jr., in Thursday’s first NASCAR Sprint Cup practice session at Charlotte Motor Speedway for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600.

Earnhardt paced the 45 drivers who took to the 1.5-mile tri-oval with a speed of 193.264 mph, more than 1 mph faster than second-fastest Kevin Harvick at 192.164 mph.

Seven Chevrolet drivers were part of the 10 fastest drivers in the session, led by Earnhardt and Harvick and followed by Jimmie Johnson third-fastest (192.014), Martin Truex Jr. fifth-fastest (191.775), Paul Menard (191.042), Kurt Busch (191.042), and Danica Patrick was ninth-fastest at 190.799 mph.

The fastest non-Chevy driver was Ford-powered Ricky Stenhouse Jr. with the fourth-fastest seed (191.782), teammate Carl Edwards was 10th-fastest at 190.577 mph, and Kyle Busch was the fastest and only Toyota driver in the top 10, with the sixth-fastest speed at 191.673 mph.

Qualifying for the Coca-Cola 600 takes place later Thursday night, starting at 7:10 p.m. ET. In addition, there will be two Nationwide Series practices from 4 to 5 pm ET and 5:30 to 6:50 pm ET.

By tradition, there will be no on-track activities at CMS on Friday. Sprint Cup drivers have two practice sessions on Saturday at 9:30 to 10:20 a.m. ET, and again from 1 to 2 p.m. ET.

Nationwide Series drivers will qualify Saturday morning at 10:40 a.m. ET, followed by the History 300 race at 3 p.m. ET.

The Coca-Cola 600, the longest and most grueling race of the Sprint Cup season, will begin at 6 p.m. ET on Sunday.

Check back here with MotorSportsTalk for more updates as they become available later today.

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In a continuing effort to help fans keep track of the on track action, SuperMotocross is in the process of developing and implementing leader lights for the unified series.

Currently Supercross (SMX) utilizes stanchions in the infield that are triggered manually by a race official. At least two stanchions are used in each race as a way to draw the eye to the leader, which is especially useful in the tight confines of the stadium series when lapping often begins before the halfway mark in the 22-bike field. This system has been in place for the past two decades.

Later this year, a fully automated system will move to the bike itself to replace the old system. At that point, fans will be able to identify the leader regardless of where he is on track.

The leader lights were tested in the second Anaheim round this year. An example can be seen at the 1:45 mark in the video above on the No. 69 bike.

“What we don’t want to do is move too fast, where it’s confusing to people,” said Mike Muye, senior director of operations for Supercross and SMX in a press release. “We’ve really just focused on the leader at this point with the thought that maybe down the road we’ll introduce others.”

Scheduled to debut with the first SuperMotocross World Championship race at zMax Dragway, located just outside the Charlotte Motor Speedway, a 3D carbon fiber-printed LED light will be affixed to each motorcycle. Ten timing loops positioned around the track will trigger the lights of the leader, which will turn green.

SMX’s partner LiveTime Scoring helped develop and implement the system that has been tested in some form or fashion since 2019.

When the leader lights are successfully deployed, SuperMotocross will explore expanding the system to identify the second- and third-place riders. Depending on need and fan acceptance, more positions could be added.

SuperMotocross is exploring future enhancements, including allowing for live fan interaction with the lights and ways to use the lighting system during the race’s opening ceremony.

Read more about SuperMotocross