Final Practice at Daytona 500

Saturday, February 17 12:05 p.m. ET

60 minutes in length

Top-20 speeds (one lap)

Pos

Car

Driver

Make

Laps

Best Time

Best Speed

1

43

Darrell Wallace Jr.

Chevy

9

45.696

196.954

2

19

Daniel Suarez

Toyota

7

45.795

196.528

3

31

Ryan Newman

Chevy

8

45.81

196.464

4

24

William Byron

Chevy

8

45.829

196.382

5

48

Jimmie Johnson

Chevy

7

45.847

196.305

6

47

AJ Allmendinger

Chevy

9

45.852

196.284

7

6

Trevor Bayne

Ford

18

45.876

196.181

8

9

Chase Elliott

Chevy

4

45.877

196.177

9

7

Danica Patrick

Chevy

8

45.889

196.125

10

51

Justin Marks

Chevy

9

45.931

195.946

11

13

Ty Dillon

Chevy

6

45.931

195.946

12

22

Joey Logano

Ford

17

46.316

194.317

13

41

Kurt Busch

Ford

4

46.809

192.271

14

2

Brad Keselowski

Ford

14

46.809

192.271

15

3

Austin Dillon

Chevy

6

46.926

191.791

16

14

Clint Bowyer

Ford

10

47.027

191.379

17

95

Kasey Kahne

Chevy

10

47.073

191.192

18

1

Jamie McMurray

Chevy

12

47.075

191.184

19

88

Alex Bowman

Chevy

3

47.081

191.16

20

12

Ryan Blaney

Ford

3

47.22

190.597

Best 10-lap Averages

Penalized Drivers

15-minute penalties at the end of practice

  • Kyle Busch
  • Gray Gaulding
  • AJ Allmendinger
  • Jimmie Johnson

Items of Note:

  • A lot of drivers kept the cars on the jacks for the final practice because of mileage limits on the one engine allowed for the week.
  • Early in the practice 13 cars formed a side-by-side draft pack for several laps
  • Darrell Wallace Jr. was P1 halfway through final practice after running just a few laps. Says he’s running a lot of pit lane mock runs to get speeding issue behind him and he is still getting used to the digital dash.
  • Daniel Suarez feels that his car is finally handling well and has nice speed to it after running just a few laps in Saturday’s final practice
  • Alex Bowman said his car feels good and he’s been able to keep it clean this week. Bowman hasn’t had a chance to work in big drafts yet this week, which could be an issue if he slips back in the field on Sunday. He did have radio issues this week but they finally fixed the problem
  • Danica Patrick ran several laps as a dress rehearsal for the 500 after making adjustments on Friday that made the car worse and she ran ninth in her time on the track
  • Ryan Newman says his car will go wherever on the track he wants it to and had the third fastest lap with 20 minutes left in happy hour
  • Kurt Busch notes that there is a lot of sensitivity in the left rear of the cars and it makes it hard to control it in the draft. He feels very good with his car with the speed and stability of the 41-Ford
  • Austin Dillon says the car has very good single car speed and works well in the draft and the improvements the team made since the clash have worked to make the car less wild
  • Justin Marks ran in the top-10 for the second practice in a row
  • Joey Logano is working on mock pit runs with 10 minutes left in practice
  • Only one Toyota (Daniel Suarez) ran in the final practice on Saturday
  • Chris Buescher says he feels better than he has in the past ahead of the Daytona 500 and his car has great drivability and handling but wants a little more speed in the car
  • 25 cars ran at least one lap in the final practice session
  • Denny Hamlin was one of the 15 that didn’t run  the final practice and he didn’t run two of the last three practices this week to keep his car clean

Practice 4 at Daytona 500

Friday, February 16 3:05 p.m. ET

50 minutes in length

Top-20 Speeds (one lap)

POS

CAR

DRIVER

Make

LAPS

BEST TIME

BEST SPEED

BEST LAP

1

19

Daniel Suarez

Toyota

27

44.296

203.179

12

2

31

Ryan Newman

Chevy

20

44.347

202.945

13

3

34

Michael McDowell

Ford

20

44.364

202.867

9

4

47

AJ Allmendinger

Chevy

19

44.392

202.739

13

5

18

Kyle Busch

Toyota

16

44.403

202.689

4

6

21

Paul Menard

Ford

10

44.421

202.607

4

7

78

Martin Truex Jr.

Toyota

24

44.447

202.488

16

8

95

Kasey Kahne

Chevy

23

44.457

202.443

3

9

2

Brad Keselowski

Ford

25

44.573

201.916

16

10

4

Kevin Harvick

Ford

19

44.591

201.834

17

11

17

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Ford

20

44.6

201.794

18

12

41

Kurt Busch

Ford

20

44.604

201.776

18

13

14

Clint Bowyer

Ford

19

44.61

201.748

18

14

10

Aric Almirola

Ford

28

44.614

201.73

13

15

3

Austin Dillon

Chevy

5

44.629

201.663

3

16

20

Erik Jones

Toyota

13

44.72

201.252

10

17

6

Trevor Bayne

Ford

17

44.726

201.225

4

18

0

Jeffrey Earnhardt

Chevy

9

45.089

199.605

7

19

42

Kyle Larson

Chevy

24

45.106

199.53

9

20

24

William Byron

Chevy

24

45.113

199.499

9

 

Best 10-lap Averages

Items of Note:

  • Nine Fords drafted together in the opening laps of the second session Friday
  • A group of multiple manufacturers drafted together after the group of Fords
  • Martin Truex Jr. told his crew chief seven minutes into practice that he has to draft to see what the car is like. His car today has been similar to the Clash in that it is very unstable.
  • Early practice speeds are 3 mph faster than the first session on Friday
  • 10 minutes into practice cars are working on making tight passes and side drafting runs due to the start time of practice correlating to the start time of Sunday’s race.
  • Daniel Suarez had a “bobble” as Darrell Waltrip said with 37 minutes left in practice. He saved it but showed instability trying to pass.
  • Ryan Newman caused Aric Almirola to get a bit loose when getting on his left side quarter panel with 34 minutes left in practice.
  • Erik Jones says they killed all of the speed in the car and he has no “driveability” in the car. He brought it back to the garage with 32 minutes left in practice.
  • Aric Almirola pulled off the track with 25 minutes left in practice saying that he was really happy with the car overall and that he had seen what he needed to see.
  • Austin Dillon says they worked on handling and his car now feels more stable on the track and entering the corners. He only ran five laps in the second session on Friday.
  • Jimmie Johnson has some instability in the 48-car still in the second practice after running 28 consecutive laps. He is on his third car of the weekend after crashing out in both The Clash and his Duel race. He ran 41 total laps.
  • Ricky Stenhouse Jr. said his car felt really good in the draft with his follow Ford drivers on Friday but said the grip was better in the Duels last night than it is during either practice. He pulled the car into the garage with 18 minutes left in practice.
  • Ryan Newman pulled off the track with 12 minutes left in practice as the second fastest car in the second practice session Friday. The team was satisfied with the car and was working on minor body repairs.
  • William Byron said with 8 minutes left in practice that his backup car feels identical to his primary car and that he felt very comfortable in practice with the backup on the track.
  • With five minutes left in practice, Alex Bowman, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, and Daniel Suarez were drafting together.
  • Joey Logano says they worked on some things in the two practices to get the car to have more handling and a bit more speed.
  • 17 cars total ran a lap at better than 200 mph in the second practice session Friday.
  • 29 cars of the 40 were on the track for the fourth practice session

Daytona 500 Practice 3 Notes

Friday February 16 1:05 p.m. ET

50 minutes in length

Top 20 speeds (one lap)

Rank

Car

Driver

Make

Laps

Best Time

Best Speed

1

19

Daniel Suarez

Toyota

23

45.036

199.840

2

11

Denny Hamlin

Toyota

27

45.058

199.743

3

78

Martin Truex Jr.

Toyota

14

45.069

199.694

4

38

David Ragan

Ford

17

45.079

199.650

5

7

Danica Patrick

Chevy

14

45.134

199.406

6

43

Darrell Wallace Jr.

Chevy

11

45.136

199.397

7

18

Kyle Busch

Toyota

28

45.180

199.203

8

62

Brandon Gaughan

Chevy

8

45.190

199.159

9

17

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Ford

15

45.380

198.325

10

51

Justin Marks

Chevy

22

45.385

198.303

11

00

Jeffrey Earnhardt

Chevy

16

45.561

197.537

12

3

Austin Dillon

Chevy

15

45.580

197.455

13

24

William Byron

Chevy

8

45.581

197.451

14

95

Kasey Kahne

Chevy

5

45.604

197.351

15

13

Ty Dillon

Chevy

22

45.606

197.342

16

72

Corey LaJoie

Chevy

7

45.636

197.213

17

31

Ryan Newman

Chevy

10

45.654

197.135

18

88

Alex Bowman

Chevy

18

45.750

196.721

19

6

Trevor Bayne

Ford

6

45.813

196.451

20

42

Kyle Larson

Chevy

25

45.821

196.416

 

Top-10 10-lap averages

Best 15-lap averages

Kyle Busch

45.76

Denny Hamlin

45.74

Kyle Larson

47.68

 

Items of note:

  • Erik Jones wants to work on handling and body work and worked through the first practice
  • Cars worked on single-file drafting as well as side-by-side drafting in packs of seven and eight throughout practice
  • Denny Hamlin spent the practice exploring different lanes on the track to see where his handled the best
  • Kyle Larson didn’t do drafting in Practice 1 given that he crashed in The Clash and in Duel 1 on Thursday night. His second backup car won’t be in Daytona until later Friday night.
  • Chase Elliott ran 33rd in practice (starts P4 Sunday) and only ran a handful of laps and spent most of the last seven minutes doing pit lane runs for timing purposes.
  • Denny Hamlin says they changed a lot of things in the car between the Duel on Thursday night and the first practice and the car was a lot better in practice Friday than the duel on Thursday.
  • 36 of the 40 drivers were on the track during the first practice overall
  • Four Toyotas and four Chevrolets were in the top-10 overall with two Fords rounding out the rest.
  • Chevrolets took nine of the 10 spots between 11th and 20th this practice session.
  • Eight drivers were practicing in backup cars following crashes in the Duels on Thursday night: Jimmie Johnson, William Byron, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson (as noted above), Austin Dillon, Aric Almirola, Matt DiBenedetto, and David Gilliland.
  • Four drivers are swapping engines out of their cars due to crash damage: Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski, Aric Almirola, and Matt DiBenedetto. But since they are due to crash they will only start at the back of the field for Daytona and not Atlanta as well.
  • Brad Keselowski used his backup car, which won Talladega last fall, and says his backup is as good as his primary was.
  • Austin Dillon is using his car from The Clash and said he is a lot more comfortable in that car 40 minutes into practice.
  • Jamie McMurray and his team did a lot of body work during the first session on Friday.
  • Kevin Harvick spent the session trying to nail down his handling, The car is fast but it was loose most of the session.
  • Seven cars faced 15 minute penalties served at the end of practice: Danica Patrick, Gray Gaulding, Michael McDowell, David Ragan, A.J. Allmendinger, Brendan Gaughan, Mark Thompson.