The first practice for the EnjoyIllinois.com 300, that will take place Saturday night, has concluded at Chicagoland Speedway. Richard Childress Racing cars continued to show speed in practices which has been a theme in recent weeks. Today Brian Scott topped the charts with a lap of 172.806mph despite running just 5 laps throughout the entire 50 minute session. RCR teammates Brendan Gaughan, Ty Dillon, and Cale Conley all finished inside the top 11 cars in terms of speed. In recent weeks, RCR cars have shown some strength it terms of speed in practices but they still have just 1 victory on the season with Paul Menard back at Michigan.
Perhaps with a limited amount of Sprint Cup drivers in Saturday night’s field, those RCR cars can turn their new found speed into a winning performance. However, several other drivers displayed plenty of speed in the opening practice rounding including the expected contenders like Chase Elliot, Kyle Larson, Sam Hornish Jr, and Kasey Kahne who were all among the top 7 drivers. Take a look at the full rundown of the EnjoyIllinois.com 1st practice speeds and be sure to check back with us later this afternoon for a recap of the final Nationwide Series practice at Chicagoland Speedway.
| Pos | No. | Driver | Make | Time | Speed (MPH) | Lap # | # Laps |
| 1 | 2 | Brian Scott | Chevrolet | 31.249 | 172.806 | 2 | 5 |
| 2 | 60 | Chris Buescher # | Ford | 31.282 | 172.623 | 2 | 21 |
| 3 | 9 | Chase Elliott # | Chevrolet | 31.292 | 172.568 | 2 | 26 |
| 4 | 62 | Brendan Gaughan | Chevrolet | 31.333 | 172.342 | 16 | 17 |
| 5 | 42 | Kyle Larson(i) | Chevrolet | 31.43 | 171.81 | 5 | 12 |
| 6 | 54 | Sam Hornish Jr. | Toyota | 31.446 | 171.723 | 1 | 10 |
| 7 | *5 | Kasey Kahne(i) | Chevrolet | 31.506 | 171.396 | 4 | 9 |
| 8 | 16 | Ryan Reed # | Ford | 31.535 | 171.238 | 2 | 14 |
| 9 | 3 | Ty Dillon # | Chevrolet | 31.544 | 171.189 | 2 | 14 |
| 10 | 6 | Trevor Bayne | Ford | 31.563 | 171.086 | 3 | 13 |
| 11 | *33 | Cale Conley(i) | Chevrolet | 31.589 | 170.946 | 27 | 27 |
| 12 | 20 | Erik Jones(i) | Toyota | 31.611 | 170.827 | 4 | 23 |
| 13 | 22 | Ryan Blaney(i) | Ford | 31.622 | 170.767 | 2 | 9 |
| 14 | 11 | Elliott Sadler | Toyota | 31.661 | 170.557 | 1 | 4 |
| 15 | 7 | Regan Smith | Chevrolet | 31.736 | 170.154 | 5 | 8 |
| 16 | 39 | Ryan Sieg # | Chevrolet | 31.758 | 170.036 | 1 | 8 |
| 17 | 99 | James Buescher | Toyota | 31.797 | 169.827 | 2 | 13 |
| 18 | 19 | Mike Bliss | Toyota | 31.821 | 169.699 | 1 | 13 |
| 19 | 31 | Dylan Kwasniewski # | Chevrolet | 31.903 | 169.263 | 4 | 21 |
| 20 | 43 | Dakoda Armstrong # | Ford | 32.031 | 168.587 | 5 | 33 |
| 21 | 1 | Landon Cassill | Chevrolet | 32.077 | 168.345 | 2 | 12 |
| 22 | *84 | Chad Boat # | Chevrolet | 32.152 | 167.952 | 3 | 20 |
| 23 | 28 | JJ Yeley | Dodge | 32.16 | 167.91 | 3 | 12 |
| 24 | *25 | John Wes Townley(i) | Toyota | 32.175 | 167.832 | 4 | 10 |
| 25 | 44 | David Starr | Toyota | 32.238 | 167.504 | 4 | 8 |
| 26 | 4 | Jeffrey Earnhardt | Chevrolet | 32.529 | 166.006 | 4 | 7 |
| 27 | 14 | Eric McClure | Toyota | 32.639 | 165.446 | 3 | 8 |
| 28 | *17 | Tanner Berryhill # | Dodge | 32.746 | 164.906 | 1 | 5 |
| 29 | 40 | Matt Dibenedetto | Chevrolet | 32.879 | 164.239 | 2 | 7 |
| 30 | 52 | Joey Gase | Chevrolet | 33.019 | 163.542 | 6 | 7 |
| 31 | *46 | Ryan Ellis | Chevrolet | 33.703 | 160.223 | 2 | 3 |
| 32 | 87 | Josh Reaume | Chevrolet | 34.613 | 156.011 | 4 | 6 |
| 33 | 55 | Jamie Dick | Chevrolet | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Best 10 Lap Consecutive Average
| Pos. | Car | Driver | From Lap | To Lap | Avg. Speed |
| 1 | 9 | Chase Elliot | 16 | 25 | 168.107 |
| 2 | 62 | Brendan Gaughan | 2 | 11 | 163.392 |