Elliott and Byron sweep Phoenix Cup practices for Hendrick Motorsports

As the old adage goes, it’s the “same song, different verse” as Hendrick Motorsports has now swept the Cup practice sessions for two weeks in a row.

Last week, Alex Bowman was fastest in both Cup practice sessions at Auto Club Speedway. This week, William Byron was fastest in first practice and Chase Elliott was fastest in second practice to provide Hendrick Motorsports with a practice sweep at Phoenix Raceway.

Byron paced the field with the fastest time of 26.747 seconds (134.595 MPH average) in first practice. Byron was 0.149 seconds quicker than Elliott.

Byron would post the eighth fastest time in second practice, with a 27.140 seconds (132.646 MPH average), slower than Elliott’s fastest time of 26.823 seconds (134.213 MPH average).

Auto Club 400 winner and fellow Hendrick driver Alex Bowman was 12th fastest with a time of 27.166 seconds (132.159 MPH average) in first practice and fourth fastest with a time of 26.986 seconds (133.403 MPH average) in second practice.

Teammate Jimmie Johnson did not fare as well as he posted the 17th fastest time in first practice and 19th fastest time in second practice. Johnson finished 14th in the Fall 2019 race and 8th in the Spring 2019 race.

Points leader Ryan Blaney posted the 10th fastest time in first practice and 11th fastest time in second practice. Blaney finished third in both Phoenix races last year.

Qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series will be tomorrow at 2:35 pm EST (TV: FS1; Radio: MRN). The NASCAR Cup Series FanShield 500 will be Sunday at 3:30 PM EST (TV: FOX; Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

SOURCES:
NASCAR
Racing-Reference.info