Brown stuns, Waters escapes big spin in practice

Will Brown has stunned with the third-fastest time his first NASCAR Cup Series session, while Cam Waters escaped a big spin at Sonoma.

The Supercars championship leader steered his #33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet to third, and just 0.187s behind Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney.

Impressively, Brown beat veteran RCR teammates Austin Dillon and Kyle Busch, who were 11th and 15th respectively.

After 50 minutes of practice, Waters was 35th in the 38-car field in his #60 RFK Racing Stage 60 Ford, having missed the first 10 minutes. Waters' experienced teammates, Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski, were 18th and 32nd respectively.

In the final 10 minutes, Brown had dropped to as low as 25th after rising to third on his first run with a 1:14.875s, 0.328s behind Hendrick Motorsports star Kyle Larson.

Waters, meanwhile, survived a wild spin through the Turn 1 dirt, but managed to avoid the barriers, and resumed the session.

As the session wore on, Brown improved to ninth as Bubba Wallace set the pace in his 23XI Toyota. Waters found pace, jumping to 23rd with a 1:15.089s. Brown then jumped back into the top 10 with a 1:14.027s, but was still 0.533s down on 2020 champion Chase Elliott.

In the closing minutes, Alex Bowman, Ty Gibbs, and Blaney took over the front-running, with Blaney setting a 1:13.202s. All the while, Brown soared to third with a 1:13.389s, behind Blaney and Gibbs and ahead of Bowman and Elliott.

“The simulators worked great for me at the GM Tech Center,” Brown told the broadcast.

“The guys back home in Australia race hard, and it’s fairly similar cars.

“I felt pretty good coming into the weekend, I watched a lot of what SVG’s [Shane van Gisbergen] doing, but I’ve worked with him a lot. There’s a long way to go yet, it’s a good start."

Earlier, van Gisbergen dominated Xfinity Series practice, and is also Brown's spotter for the Cup Series action.

The two Supercars stars will return to the track at Sonoma for Qualifying on Saturday (8:00am AEST Sunday).

The race, the Toyota/Save Mart 350, will be televised live in Australia on Foxtel and Kayo. Pre-race coverage will commence on Monday June 10 at 5:00am AEST on Fox Sports 505, with the race itself to start at 5:30am AEST.

Last-start Supercars race winner Waters and Brown will return to Australia after their Sonoma cameos for Round 5 of the 2024 season in Darwin.

The betr Darwin Triple Crown will be held on June 14-16. Tickets for the event are on sale now. International viewers can follow all the action on Superview.