In last season's inaugural Busch Light Clash at the LA Memorial Coliseum, both Martin Truex Jr. and Bubba Wallace were struggling to find speed at the quarter-mile track.
What a difference a year can make.
Truex, piloting the No. 19 Toyota Camry TRD for Joe Gibbs Racing, paced the sole practice session ahead of Sunday's Busch Light Clash, posting a lap of 13.361 seconds.
The Mayetta, New Jersey-native outpaced his manufacturer teammate, Bubba Wallace, to lead the practice session, as the No. 23 Toyota Camry TRD clocked in a hundredth of a second slower than the session leader.
Chase Briscoe put his No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang in third-place, with Alex Bowman and Ryan Blaney completing the top-five fastest times in the session.
Despite putting down the third-fastest lap in the session, Briscoe had his own adversity to face in Saturday's session, after AJ Allmendinger retaliated against the Stewart-Haas Racing driver, shoving him into the outside wall.
“I just got drove through. I thought he was slowing down so much down the straightaway to get a gap and I felt like I was beside him pretty far down the straightaway," Briscoe said. "I got in there a little hot for sure, but I honestly thought he was just gonna give it to me since we were in practice."
"I went into three and he just drove me straight into the fence. It’s definitely frustrating. Our car is obviously really, really good. Even after the damage I think we were still the best car out of our group, so it’s unfortunate," the Stewart-Haas Racing driver continued. "We don’t have a single backup car out here between the four of us at SHR, so that will definitely set us behind quite a bit. We’ll just chalk it up in the memory bank.”
Ty Gibbs clocked in sixth-place in the session, despite a spectacular fire in the cockpit of the No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry TRD. The 20-year-old emerged from his car unharmed.
Ross Chastain, Denny Hamlin, Todd Gilliland, and Justin Haley completed the top-10 in practice.
Among other notables outside the top-10, includes: Christopher Bell (16th), Chase Elliott (19th), Joey Logano (21st), Austin Cindric (32nd), and Brad Keselowski (33rd).
Photo Credit: David Rosenblum, LAT Images, Courtesy of Toyota Racing