Tyler Reddick paces field in NASCAR Cup practice at Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS — Tyler Reddick posted the fastest lap in Cup practice Friday in the series’ return to the oval at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The Cup Series last raced on the Indy oval in 2020.

Reddick, among four drivers within 20 points of the series lead, paced the field with a lap of 182.582 mph.

MORE: Cup practice results

“When you come to a place like this, that’s always something you hope for,” Reddick said of the fast lap. “I’ve been fortunate, we’ve run the road course here, and we’ve been really, really strong. Obviously, it seemed like Denny (Hamlin) had a really good test and we were able to get some good data from him.”

Qualifying is Saturday. The Cup race is at 2:30 p.m. ET Sunday on NBC. Pre-race coverage begins at 2 p.m. ET.

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• Dustin Long,

• Dustin Long,

Ryan Blaney, who won last weekend’s race at Pocono, was second on the speed chart with a lap of 181.928 mph.

Denny Hamlin, who took part in a Goodyear tire test in early June, was third on the speed chart in practice with a lap of 181.561 mph. Christopher Bell was fourth at 181.371 mph. Alex Bowman completed the top five with a lap of 180.930 mph.

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• Dustin Long,

• Dustin Long,

Points leader Chase Elliott was 12th on the speed chart in practice with a lap of 180.058 mph.

The other two drivers who took part in the June tire test with Hamlin were Kyle Busch (16th on the speed chart with a top lap of 179.824 mph) and Todd Gilliland (18th on the speed chart with a top lap of 179.745 mph).