With a speed of 187.480 mph, Denny Hamlin posted the fastest lap in Wednesday’s (Feb. 12) Daytona 500 practice session.
Toyota swept the top three spots in the first on-track action of Speedweeks, as Bubba Wallace and Ty Gibbs posted the second- and third-fastest times, respectively. Gibbs ran a total of 24 laps, the most of any driver in the 50-minute session.
Chandler Smith was the fastest of the non-chartered teams in fourth, while John Hunter Nemechek rounded out the top five. Riley Herbst, Daniel Suarez, Noah Gragson, Erik Jones and Kyle Busch completed the top 10.
Forty-three of the 45 teams posted times; Spire Motorsports teammates Justin Haley and Michael McDowell elected to focus on qualifying instead.
Of the nine teams that must qualify or race their way into the Daytona 500, Smith led the way in fourth, followed by Helio Castroneves (12th), Martin Truex Jr. (31st), Jimmie Johnson (32nd), Anthony Alfredo (34th), Justin Allgaier (36th), Corey LaJoie (41st), BJ McLeod (42nd) and JJ Yeley (43rd).
Daytona 500 qualifying will air tonight at 8:15 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1. The Duel at Daytona qualifying races will follow Thursday (Feb. 13) at 7 p.m. ET on FS1. The second practice session will take place on Friday (Feb. 14) at 5:35 p.m. ET on FS1, while the 67th Great American Race kicks off on FOX on Sunday (Feb. 16) at 2:30 p.m. ET.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Can find on Twitter @stephen_stumpf.
Who cares about practice times? They don’t mean anything. Blaney is 38th! Elliott is 29th! Is that anywhere close to how fast they will qualify? Nobody shows their actual speed in practice.