AUSTIN, Texas – GMS Racing teammates Zane Smith and Sheldon Creed were the class of the field Friday in a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series practice session at Circuit of The Americas that struggled to find any sort of rhythm.
Smith led the 43 trucks in attendance at the 20-turn, 3.426-mile permanent road course, which has hosted the Formula One United States Grand Prix since 2012, with a best lap of 2:17.395 (89.348 mph).
His No. 21 MRC Construction Chevrolet jumped up to the top spot inside of 20 minutes to go in the 50-minute session and stayed there for the duration.
However, that late rise was due in part to four full-course yellows during the first half of practice which stifled a good portion of the on-track running that teams hoped to have and kept many drivers from posting a representative time early in practice.
Smith and others admitted after the conclusion of the session that the segmented nature of Friday’s practice was frustrating from behind the wheel.
“In a situation like this, you’re never going to have enough practice,” Smith said. “I was cool with even rolling around under caution, just to see the place and get familiar with it. I felt like our team, personally, had a really smooth practice … we had some adjustments that we wanted to try and some worked, while others didn’t. … It was frustrating to have the session be stop-and-start like it was, but I decided coming into this weekend to roll with the punches. I was getting pretty frustrated, though. Luckily, everyone finally got our stuff together and were all able to log some laps.”
“I hope nobody was listening to my radio, because I made a comment that I probably shouldn’t have. I said [all the cautions] was embarrassing because people are here to see practice; I haven’t seen this many people at a live race track in a long time and we were just parading around at a slow pace. It was frustrating,” Rhodes said. “Me as a driver, I wanted to turn as many laps as I could, but I would have been fine if we’d come here with no practice as well. … There’s pros and cons to both ways.”
Creed trailed Smith by .340 seconds, ranking second fastest at 2:17.735 (89.128 mph) in the No. 2 Chevrolet, with Grant Enfinger putting the No. 9 Rohrbaugh Racing Chevrolet third-quick at a stout 2:18.472 (88.653 mph).
Rhodes was the fastest Toyota driver in fourth at 2:18.768 (88.464 mph) and Todd Gilliland closed the top five as the best driver in the Ford contingent at 2:19.493 (88.004 mph).
Sixth through 10th were Kaz Grala, Matt Crafton, Chandler Smith, Sam Mayer and John Hunter Nemechek.
Friday’s first yellow flag waved roughly five minutes into the session, for possible fluid at turn 15 from the smoking Chevrolet of Tate Fogleman. That was followed by the stalled trucks of Sam Lecomte and Roger Reuse, which brought out back-to-back cautions around the 20-minute mark of practice.
The final caution came just past halfway in the session for a spin and stall at turn two by Brad Gross.
With such a start-and-stop feel Friday, as well as rain in the forecast for race day on Saturday, how much of what teams learned will they be able to apply to the Toyota Tundra 225?
“That’s the big storyline, is the weather, and what the rain may or may not do,” Rhodes tipped. “We practiced the whole time with a rain setup in the truck, so I’m mad at my crew chief because I want to go fast … but there’s a wet setup underneath me because that’s what we think we’re going to race.
“The gamble is whether you set up for a wet track, because things are impounded for qualifying, or you set up for the dry hoping that the rain doesn’t do what it looks like it’s going to do,” he added. “My crew chief knows I’m not happy right now … but we’ll see what people put in their trucks and how it plays out.”
Qualifying for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is scheduled for 9 a.m. ET Saturday, with live coverage on FS1.