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Reddick paces Miami practice as Logano, Bell struggle
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Reddick paces Miami practice as Logano, Bell struggle

Tyler Reddick was fastest in Saturday morning’s NASCAR Cup Series practice session at Homestead-Miami Speedway at 167.770 mph (32.187 seconds).

Reddick (P) ran 31 laps during the session. But he set the best time on his first lap on the track.

Ross Chastain finished second with 167.764 mph. Bubba Wallace was third at 167.754 mph, Michael McDowell fourth at 167.676 mph and Brad Keselowski fifth at 167.338 mph.

Erik Jones was sixth at 167.338 mph, Martin Truex Jr. seventh at 166.842 mph and Denny Hamlin (P) was fastest at 166.646 mph. Joey Logano (P) and Zane Smith rounded out the top 10 at 166.636 mph and 166.543 mph respectively.

Logano didn’t run the entire session. After completing 25 laps, Logano let his Team Penske group know that he might have a power steering issue.

“I wish I knew; we would be able to resolve it,” Logano said of the problem. “It seemed like things were getting stuck as it went along, so we’ll probably have to take a look at it after qualifying. This isn’t one of the approved changes, I don’t believe, so we’ll have to find out later. But we can at least qualify for a stand.

“I think our Hunt Brothers Mustang is pretty good in the long run. That’s roughly where we are: good in the long term, not so good in the short term. So we’ll try to give the short term some love for tomorrow and get the power steering working as well.

Kyle Larson (P) finished 14th and Christopher Bell (P) 16th. Bell ran 17 laps, then reported that his Toyota had “hit the ground” during a race. The team told Bell to come to the pits if it could be a tire problem, which turned out to be a flat right front.

“It’s going to be hard to say, but I don’t think so,” Bell said when asked by NBC Sports if the practice had been in vain. “I think we had a number of competitive rounds and learned a little bit. I’m very grateful I was able to catch it and these guys gave me some good directions to get it because if you drag the underbody of these cars it’s pretty much a waste of the weekend . So, I think we got away with one there.

William Byron (P) finished 26th, Ryan Blaney (P) 29th and Chase Elliott (P) 33rd. Elliott was the slowest of the eight drivers in the playoffs.

Noah Gragson was the fastest with the best average of 10 consecutive best laps. Gragson dominated Keselowski, Reddick, Wallace and Michael McDowell.

There are 38 registered drivers in the Straight Talk Wireless 400.

*P denotes playoff driver.