Race Weekend Central

Brian Scott Fastest in Friday Cup Practice At Daytona

With both of Thursday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice sessions all but rained out (only eight cars made it on track during the first practice before it was delayed), Friday morning’s practice became the only practice session this weekend at Daytona International Speedway for the Cup cars.

Brian Scott ended up turning the fastest lap of the session at 199.349 mph. Austin Dillon was second at 199.344 mph, while Brad Keselowski came home third at 198.711 mph. Ryan Blaney was fourth at 198.649 mph, and David Gilliland, attempting his third race of the season after not qualifying for the first Daytona race and finishing 17th at Talladega, rounded out the top 5.

Scott is in the middle of a very disappointing rookie season for Richard Petty Motorsports, with only one top 20 in the 16 races before this weekend. Scott also has the dubious distinction of being 30th in points, the last driver that can win and be in the Chase. Currently, Scott is only nine points ahead of Tony Stewart, who, if he passes Scott, would be on the Chase Grid thanks to his win last week at Sonoma Raceway.

There was some trouble for Kyle Busch at the end of this session. Busch lost a right rear tire in the final few minutes of practice and slammed the SAFER barrier. Busch destroyed the front of his car and will go to a backup car. No other cars were damaged in the incident.

Qualifying is scheduled for 4:10 p.m. ET. Of course, the question of if qualifying will run at all will depend on Florida weather, and there is a chance of rain around that time. The newly announced qualifying procedure (field set by owner points if qualifying is rained out) will come into effect next week at Kentucky Speedway, so this weekend will follow the old rules of setting the field on practice speeds if qualifying is not completed.

Full practice results can be found here.

About the author

Michael has watched NASCAR for 20 years and regularly covered the sport from 2013-2021. He moved on to Formula 1, IndyCar, and SRX coverage for the site, while still putting a toe in the water from time-to-time back into the NASCAR pool.

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