Here's the thing about final practices: they give you a proper look at who brought a beast to the track before everything gets serious. Chase Briscoe laid down a magnificent fast lap of 165.239 mph during Friday's 50-minute NASCAR Cup Series practice session at Homestead-Miami Speedway, securing top honors for the day around the 1.5-mile oval.
Now, among the drivers actually fighting for the championship in the Chase presented by Mobil 1, Denny Hamlin was the fastest of the bunch. Hamlin pumped in a 164.684 mph lap, which put him third-best overall in the session. Right behind him was Christopher Bell, who managed the fourth-fastest time at 164.649 mph. Let me tell you, both of them have a mountain to climb this weekend: Bell trails Kyle Larson by 67 points, and Hamlin is sitting 70 points back, meaning both drivers need a win and plenty of help to keep their title hopes alive.
Speaking of the points leader, Kyle Larson could only manage the 10th-fastest time with a best lap of 163.895 mph. He logged just 33 laps during the run, having scraped the outside wall multiple times while aggressively working the boards. Meanwhile, Austin Cindric slotted into second fastest overall, and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top five. The rest of the top ten filled out with Daniel Suárez, Ty Gibbs, Joey Logano, and Michael McDowell taking fifth through ninth fastest respectively. Blaney also showed serious long-run speed, posting the best 10-, 15-, 20-, and 25-lap averages of anyone on track.
The session wasn't entirely clean, though the only incident arrived right at the death. Tyler Reddick made contact with the back end of Zane Smith's No. 38 Ford as they entered pit road, occurring just 10 seconds before the official end of the practice. Thankfully, it was a minor close to an otherwise intense day of tuning up for the final weekend of the 2026 season.
