Ricky Stenhouse Jr. leads only Coca-Cola 600 practice

For the first time this weekend, cars made their way onto the track for a live session on Saturday afternoon. It was a somber atmosphere as drivers climbed into their cars, including Austin Hill -- wearing a Kyle Busch t-shirt under his firesuit as he takes over the fallen legend's renumbered No. 33 car for the Coca-Cola 600.

Bubba Wallace walked out into the infield and reflected at the site of the new No. 8 logo painted into the grass, while several drivers embraced Busch's teammate Austin Dillon.

NASCAR planned to give teams 45 minutes of practice after canceling qualifying. About 15 minutes into the session, heavy misting forced a brief red flag. The practice got back underway soon after, but the mist never truly went away.

The first red flag for cause was Dillon, who suffered a flat left-rear tire, but he avoided an incident on the track.

Making his Coke 600 debut, Corey Heim slid up into the wall near the end of practice, but made it back to the pits.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr, who was among those embracing Dillon before the start of practice, led the speed charts with a 29.069s lap. He was followed by Carson Hocevar, Michael McDowell, Ryan Blaney, and Heim.

Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Ty Gibbs, Erik Jones, and Josh Berry filled out the remainder of the top ten.

Defending Coke 600 winner Ross Chastain was 17th in the single-lap speeds.

Hill was 28th on the speed charts for RCR, and Dillon was 30th.

McDowell was the fastest driver in ten-lap averages, followed by Jones, Austin Cindric, Riley Herbst, and Connor Zilisch.

Qualifying was already canceled before the practice session began, so Tyler Reddick and Ty Gibbs will share the front row.

Coca-Cola 600 practice results

cla	#	driver	manufacturer	laps	time	gap	mph
1	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr	Chevrolet	31	29.069		185.765
2	77	Carson Hocevar	Chevrolet	19	29.175	0.106	185.090
3	71	Michael McDowell	Chevrolet	28	29.200	0.131	184.932
4	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	34	29.240	0.171	184.679
5	67	Corey Heim	Toyota	37	29.276	0.207	184.451
6	5	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	38	29.279	0.210	184.433
7	20	Christopher Bell	Toyota	40	29.291	0.222	184.357
8	54	Ty Gibbs	Toyota	40	29.305	0.236	184.269
9	43	Erik Jones	Toyota	39	29.308	0.239	184.250
10	21	Josh Berry	Ford	36	29.316	0.247	184.200
11	88	Connor Zilisch	Chevrolet	37	29.324	0.255	184.150
12	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	32	29.341	0.272	184.043
13	2	Austin Cindric	Ford	35	29.361	0.292	183.917
14	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	21	29.368	0.299	183.874
15	19	Chase Briscoe	Toyota	25	29.379	0.310	183.805
16	17	Chris Buescher	Ford	42	29.385	0.316	183.767
17	1	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	34	29.453	0.384	183.343
18	7	Daniel Suarez	Chevrolet	31	29.454	0.385	183.337
19	60	Ryan Preece	Ford	29	29.478	0.409	183.187
20	23	Darrell Wallace Jr	Toyota	40	29.489	0.420	183.119
21	10	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	30	29.494	0.425	183.088
22	41	Cole Custer	Chevrolet	35	29.499	0.430	183.057
23	16	AJ Allmendinger	Chevrolet	33	29.516	0.447	182.952
24	45	Tyler Reddick	Toyota	36	29.522	0.453	182.914
25	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Chevrolet	39	29.532	0.463	182.852
26	48	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	29	29.547	0.478	182.760
27	35	Riley Herbst	Toyota	41	29.566	0.497	182.642
28	33	Austin Hill	Chevrolet	41	29.577	0.508	182.574
29	22	Joey Logano	Ford	35	29.636	0.567	182.211
30	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	15	29.663	0.594	182.045
31	4	Noah Gragson	Ford	31	29.686	0.617	181.904
32	6	Brad Keselowski	Ford	38	29.691	0.622	181.873
33	38	Zane Smith	Ford	35	29.711	0.642	181.751
34	42	John Hunter Nemechek	Toyota	37	29.774	0.705	181.366
35	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	36	29.799	0.730	181.214
36	51	Cody Ware	Chevrolet	28	29.978	0.909	180.132
37	34	Todd Gilliland	Ford	28	30.003	0.934	179.982
38	78	Katherine Legge	Chevrolet	28	30.600	1.531	176.471
39	66	Timmy Hill	Ford	32	31.390	2.321	172.029