GMS Racing Teammates Sauter, Haley Pace Homestead Truck Series Practices

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series kicked off the final race day of the 2018 season with a pair of practice sessions on Friday morning at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Championship contender Johnny Sauter paced the opening 50-minute practice session in the No. 21 GMS Racing Chevrolet with a lap at 170.465 mph as 30 trucks recorded a time. Fellow championship contender Brett Moffitt was third in the No. 16 Hattori Racing Enterprises Toyota. Justin Haley was sixth in the No. 24 GMS Racing Chevrolet and Noah Gragson was 11th in the No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota.

Final practice was paced by Haley at 167.141 mph with Gragson close behind in the second spot at 166.898 mph. Moffitt was 16th on the chart with a lap at 162.935 mph with Sauter 20th at 161.449 mph. 31 trucks turned a lap in the final session.

“I have some things we can work on, but we’re good boys,” Haley radioed the team as they wrapped up the final practice session.

As for Gragson, he tweeted on Friday morning, saying: “November 16th, 2018. The biggest day of my career thus far. Today is not about me, but about Safelite, Toyota, Kyle Busch Motorsports and all the people who have helped get me to this point in my career. Today is for you guys. Let’s go get this trophy.”

2018 ARCA Racing Series champion Sheldon Creed was fourth quick in the No. 2 GMS Racing Chevrolet. Creed is making his fifth Truck Series start of the season and is slated to run the full schedule with GMS in 2019.

Don’t put too much stock in practice speeds though as not all teams made mock qualifying runs during the sessions. Qualifying is two rounds and will begin at 3:30 p.m. ET to set the 32-truck field.

Coverage of Friday night’s Ford EcoBoost 200 will begin at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1 with radio coverage on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Stages 1 and 2 will be 30 laps each with the final stage distance of 74 laps.

Full practice results from both sessions can be found below and Motorsports Tribune will have live coverage of all the championship action from Homestead-Miami Speedway throughout the weekend.

First Truck Series Practice Results

Final Truck Series Practice Results