The first practice of the ARCA season started very well for Brandon McReynolds. He was fastest in practice in his #28 Toyota painted up just like the old scheme for Davey Allison. The paint job has a special meaning for the 27-year-old driver, as his father, Larry McReynolds, served as the crew chief for Allison from 1991 until Allison’s death in 1993. In 1992 they had a stellar season together, winning the Daytona 500 and nearly winning the championship. Brandon McReynolds is making his first ARCA start since winning at Talladega in 2012, another restrictor plate track. If that hiatus from the series seems to be too long for him to be a favorite this weekend, he also had ran one race in the K&N Pro Series East at New Hampshire. McReynolds won that race too.
Joining Brandon McReynolds at the top of the charts were three NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series drivers. Kyle Busch Motorsports has two drivers running for the Truck championship in 2019, Todd Gilliland and Harrison Burton, and they placed the 2nd and 4th fastest times in practice, respectively. 3rd fastest in practice was 2-time ARCA winner Gus Dean who is moving up to the Truck Series in 2019 with Young’s Motorsports. Rounding out the Top-5 in practice was Munford, Alabama native Bret Holmes.
Of course, not all cars ran in the draft, but there were a few times where at least a half dozen cars ran together in a pack. There were a couple incidents during the practice. The #11 of Jason White blew an engine during the first half of the 2-hour session. The #77 of Joseph Graf Jr. stalled heading to pit road which caused a brief pause as well. In the second half of the practice session, the #1 Toyota driven by Chuck Hiers ran out of room after the tri-oval and scraped the outside wall.
The ARCA Racing Series has one more practice session Friday morning at 9:30am and then they have a group qualifying session at 4:30pm. The Lucas Oil 200 Driven by General Tire will take place Saturday evening at 4:45pm and will air live on FS1, all times are Eastern.
| Pos. | # | Driver | Make | Time | Speed |
| 1 | 28 | Brandon McReynolds | Toyota | 49.014 | 183.621 |
| 2 | 4 | Todd Gilliland | Toyota | 49.155 | 183.094 |
| 3 | 32 | Gus Dean | Chevy | 49.169 | 183.042 |
| 4 | 20 | Harrison Burton | Toyota | 49.185 | 182.983 |
| 5 | 23 | Bret Holmes | Chevy | 49.190 | 182.964 |
| 6 | 7 | Codie Rohrbaugh | Chevy | 49.193 | 182.953 |
| 7 | 18 | Riley Herbst | Toyota | 49.193 | 182.953 |
| 8 | 22 | Connor Hall | Ford | 49.202 | 182.919 |
| 9 | 30 | Grant Quinlan | Ford | 49.255 | 182.723 |
| 10 | 35 | Brenden Queen | Toyota | 49.257 | 182.715 |
| 11 | 02 | Andy Seuss | Chevy | 49.264 | 182.689 |
| 12 | 52 | Tyler Dippel | Ford | 49.344 | 182.393 |
| 13 | 09 | CJ McLaughlin | Chevy | 49.380 | 182.260 |
| 14 | 15 | Christian Eckes | Toyota | 49.385 | 182.242 |
| 15 | 55 | Leilani Munter | Toyota | 49.399 | 182.190 |
| 16 | 25 | Michael Self | Toyota | 49.401 | 182.183 |
| 17 | 63 | Dave Mader III | Ford | 49.467 | 181.939 |
| 18 | 3 | Willie Mullins | Ford | 49.502 | 181.811 |
| 19 | 27 | Travis Braden | Ford | 49.507 | 181.792 |
| 20 | 54 | Natalie Decker | Toyota | 49.520 | 181.745 |
| 21 | 29 | Derrick Lancaster | Toyota | 49.521 | 181.741 |
| 22 | 77 | Joseph Graf Jr. | Ford | 49.534 | 181.693 |
| 23 | 43 | Sean Corr | Chevy | 49.634 | 181.327 |
| 24 | 46 | Thad Moffitt | Chevy | 49.642 | 181.298 |
| 25 | 44 | John Ferrier | Chevy | 49.663 | 181.221 |
| 26 | 5 | Bobby Gerhart | Chevy | 50.179 | 179.358 |
| 27 | 11 | Jason White | Chevy | 50.803 | 177.155 |
| 28 | 36 | Paul Williamson | Toyota | 50.876 | 176.901 |
| 29 | 1 | Chuck Hiers | Toyota | 51.184 | 175.836 |
| 30 | 10 | Tommy Vigh Jr. | Ford | 51.248 | 175.617 |
| 31 | 2 | Eric Caudell | Ford | 51.269 | 175.545 |
| 32 | 69 | Scott Melton | Ford | 51.414 | 175.050 |
| 33 | 61 | J.J. Pack | Toyota | 51.983 | 173.134 |
| 34 | 06 | Con Nicolopoulos | Chevy | 52.208 | 172.387 |
| 35 | 48 | Brad Smith | Chevy | 52.293 | 172.107 |
