On an extremely warm and muggy day in eastern Iowa, Chandler Smith (No. 20 Craftsman/828 Logistics Toyota) led the way in ARCA Menards Series practice for tonight’s Fans with Benefits 150 at Iowa Speedway. Smith’s fast lap came with just three minutes remaining in the 90-minute session.
With temperatures already in the upper 80s and expected to climb into the upper 90s, drivers were expected to deal with a lack of grip on the 14-year-old Iowa Speedway pavement. Smith’s 24.399 second/129.104 mile per hour lap narrowly eclipsed teammate Michael Self (No. 25 Sinclair Lubricants Toyota), who led the session briefly before Smith’s fast lap. Self’s lap of 24.431 seconds/128.935 miles per hour was good for second fastest.
Bret Holmes (No. 23 Holmes II Excavation Toyota) set the fastest lap in the opening moments of the session and stayed there throughout the next 85 minutes, but for most of that time Holmes was in the garage area. He made significant contact with the turn four wall about 20 minutes into the session, seriously damaging the right side of his car. Holmes and team are busy unloading their backup car in hopes of making a lap during General Tire Pole Qualifying.
Corey Heim (No. 22 Speedway Children’s Charities Ford) was fourth at 24.499 seconds/128.577 miles per hour and Ty Gibbs (No. 18 Monster Energy/ORCA Coolers/Terrible Herbst/Advance Auto Parts Toyota) was fifth at 24.668 seconds/127.696 miles per hour.
Christian Eckes (No. 15 JBL Audio Toyota), Carson Hocevar (No. 28 GMPartsNow.com/Scott’s/KBR Development Chevrolet), Kaden Honeycutt (No. 38 BBD Fabrication/Chris Kyle Frog Foundation Ford), Travis Braden (No. 27 MatrixCare/Consonus Health Care/Liberty Village Ford), and Colby Howard (No. 32 The Hope Foundation/Yurpal Chevrolet) rounded out the top ten.
In addition to the incident involving Holmes, the session was slowed four other times for incidents. The first caution of the day was for Rick Clifton (No. 11 Ohio Ag Equipment/Asheville Propane Toyota), who’s car dropped fluid on the speedway. After the green came out following a lengthy clean-up the caution immediately came out again when Dick Doheny (No. 10 Extreme Kleaner/Thomas Coffee Ford) spun into the infield on the frontstretch. Colby Howard spun off turn two shortly after the Holmes incident. Jason Miles (No. 1 Fast Track High Performance Driving Ford) also spun off turn two in the final half hour of the session.
General Tire Pole Qualifying is set for 4:35 pm ET/3:35 pm CT, and the green flag for the Fans with Benefits 150 is set for shortly after 9 pm ET/8 pm CT. The race will be televised live on MAVTV. ARCA for Me members can follow live timing & scoring at ARCARacing.com. New users can register for free with a valid email address at ARCARacing.com/login.
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