Austin Dillon tops NASCAR Cup Series practice at Richmond, Hendrick Motorsports struggles

Austin Dillon and the No. 3 team found some speed over the Olympic break.

Despite sitting 32nd in points going into Sunday's race at Richmond, Dillon was fastest in Saturday's 45-minute practice session at the 0.75-mile track. His Richard Childress Racing teammate, Kyle Busch, finished the session in 20th.

Bubba Wallace, Christopher Bell, Martin Truex Jr and Zane Smith completed the top five with Carson Hocevar, Chris Buescher, Michael McDowell, Daniel Suarez and Ty Gibbs rounding out the top 10. Other notable drivers from Saturday's practice session included Denny Hamlin in 11th, Ross Chastain in 15th, Joey Logano in 18th, Tyler Reddick in 21st and Ryan Blaney in 25th.

Hendrick Motorsports had a rough session on Saturday with Alex Bowman (27th) being the best of the four HMS cars. Kyle Larson (32nd), William Byron (35th) and Chase Elliott (36th) rounded out Hendrick's lineup.

NASCAR's tire lineup for the weekend has been the dominant topic of discussion with the normal prime tire being supplemented by a softer "option" tire. Teams will have six sets of the normal prime tire available for Sunday's race with two sets of the option tire being made available.
Cup Series qualifying, which will be televised on the NBC Sports App at 5:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, is next with Sunday's Cook Out 400 set to go green shortly after 6 p.m. ET. Race coverage will be provided on USA Network, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.