On Wednesday, after almost three months away from the racetrack, the drivers and teams of the NASCAR Cup Series had the opportunity to hit the racetrack ahead of the evening’s single-vehicle pole qualifying session.
The 50-minute practice session marked the first on-track time for NASCAR Cup Series teams during the regular-season, and between the 45 drivers entered in the prestigious season-opener, the game plans covered many different bases.
Denny Hamlin, who posted the quickest time during the session, began the session with some single-car runs, but towards the end of the 50 minutes, joined some fellow Toyota-backed teams in a small draft.
That resulted in the fastest time of the session, a 48.005-second lap, equivalent to an average speed of 187.480 around Daytona International Speedway.
PRACTICE RESULTS: Daytona 500 Practice #1
Bubba Wallace, driving the No. 23 Toyota Camry XSE owned by Hamlin, was the second fastest during the session, after also participating in that same drafting run.
Ty Gibbs, a teammate of Hamlin’s at Joe Gibbs Racing, was the third-fastest driver in the session.
In fourth, piloting the No. 66 for Garage 66 (formerly known as MBM Motorsports), was Chandler Smith, whose fastest time (turned in the draft) was the quickest of the nine open entries vying for four (or five) spots in ‘The Great American Race’.
Smith was among the slowest drivers in single-car speeds but was able to draft tightly with the group of Toyota-backed drivers that hit the racetrack later in the session.
John Hunter Nemechek, another Toyota, was fifth quickest in the session for LEGACY MOTOR CLUB. Riley Herbst was sixth, with Daniel Suarez, Noah Gragson, Erik Jones, and Kyle Busch rounding out the top-10.
With the track remaining wide-open during the 50-minute practice session, it’s difficult to tell which laps were run with or without drafting aid, so Wednesday evening’s single-vehicle qualifying may not look similar to this practice session.
The most important thing, though, is that none of the 45 drivers entered in the Daytona 500 suffered any major problems during the session, so everybody should have the opportunity to post a qualifying time.
Brad Keselowski and RFK Racing teammate Ryan Preece both went on-track early in the practice session with smoke rolling out of their Ford Mustang Dark Horse entries, an issue that was later diagnosed as a steering problem.
AJ Allmendinger also seemed to have some kind of similar problem, with smoke rolling out of his No. 16 CELSIUS Chevrolet in the middle portion of the session.
Of the 45 drivers entered in the Daytona 500, only 43 elected to take advantage of this additional on-track time, with Spire Motorsports teammates Justin Haley and Michael McDowell not posting a time.
Carson Hocevar, the third Spire Motorsports entry, was ranked 19th in the practice session, after running a total of 19 laps — the majority of which were in a single-car format.
Qualifying will commence on Wednesday, February 12 at 8:00 PM ET. Coverage will be on FS1, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
