Preece got in a truck for the first time to get bonus track time ahead of Sunday’s Cup race, the first ever for NASCAR’s top series at the track.
It’s reopening Friday night was the first act in a three-day show that concludes with the Cup Series’ return to the Nashville-area for the first time in 37 years.
Gilliland’s father, David, owner of the team and a former driver, took over as crew chief and guided his son to the finish.
Austin Dillon won the last Truck Series race at Nashville, a 1.33-mile, D-shaped, all concrete oval located about 30 miles outside the city.
Byron, like, Preece, tried to get early track time alongside his Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Rudy Fugle in Hendrick deal with Rackley W.A.R.