Race Weekend Central

Darrell Wallace Jr. Tops Daytona 500 Final Practice

Coming off a third-place finish in Thursday night’s Can-Am Duel, Darrell Wallace Jr. soared to the top of the leaderboard in final practice for Sunday’s Daytona 500 in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

Wallace turned a lap of 196.954 mph, .099 seconds ahead of Daniel Suarez (196.528 mph). The No. 19 Toyota led both practices on Friday, only to have the second-quickest lap time the following day.

Ryan Newman (196.464 mph) turned the third-fastest lap, while a pair of Hendrick Motorsports teammates, William Byron (196.382 mph) and Jimmie Johnson (196.305 mph), filled out the top five.

AJ Allmendinger, Trevor Bayne, Chase Elliott, Danica Patrick and Justin Marks completed the rest of the top 10.

After turning 17 laps, 2015 Daytona 500 winner Joey Logano wound up 12th on the board. The No. 22 completed the most circuits in the one-hour session. Defending 500 champion Kurt Busch was 13th, registering a top speed of 192.271 mph.

Though Suarez was second on the board, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Erik Jones did not turn a single lap in final practice. Kevin Harvick and defending champion Martin Truex Jr. joined the JGR trio inside the garage area. Only 25 cars in the 40-car field ran at least one lap.

The green flag for the 60th annual Great American Race is scheduled to fly shortly after 2:30 p.m. ET on Sunday.

DAYTONA 500 HAPPY HOUR RESULTS

About the author

Dustin joined the Frontstretch team at the beginning of the 2016 season. 2020 marks his sixth full-time season covering the sport that he grew up loving. His dream was to one day be a NASCAR journalist, thus why he attended Ithaca College (Class of 2018) to earn a journalism degree. Since the ripe age of four, he knew he wanted to be a storyteller.

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