In the opening practice for next Sunday’s Daytona 500, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. posted the quickest time of 48 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series cars that took time at the “World Center of Racing.”
Stenhouse Jr. led the way with a time of 44.413 seconds at 202.64 miles per hour, edging Richard Petty Motorsports’ new driver Sam Hornish Jr., also in a Ford. Trevor Bayne graduating from the NASCAR XFINITY Series to full-time Sprint Cup racing this season was third quickest in another Roush Fenway Racing entry.
Last July’s Daytona winner Aric Almirola put the second Richard Petty Motorsports entry fourth while defending Daytona 500 champion Dale Earnhardt Jr. rounded out the top-five.
Quickly, teams started out the session in the draft but opted to go to single-car runs shortly thereafter – keeping Stenhouse Jr. atop the leaderboard for nearly the entire session.
Tomorrow’s qualifying session for the Daytona 500 separates from the traditional single-car runs to group qualifying, pairing the 49-entries into two groups based on a qualifying draw. The two fastest competitors from those groups will set the front-row for the “Great American Race.”
Greg Biffle with new backing from Ortho was sixth followed by Denny Hamlin, Front Row Motorsports’ David Gilliland, 2013 Daytona 500 pole sitter Danica Patrick and Carl Edwards rounding out the top-10.
Edwards in his first official Sprint Cup Series practice for Joe Gibbs Racing will have to make the Daytona 500 based on speed or his finishing position in Thursday’s Duel races. Edwards doesn’t have owner points to fall back on for a provisional.
Other notables inside the top-25 included: Clint Bowyer (12th), Justin Allgaier (14th), Jamie McMurray (17th), Kyle Larson (20th), defending polesitter Austin Dillon (22nd), Brian Scott (24th) and Ty Dillon (25th.)
Ty Dillon is one of two drivers hoping for triple-duty at Daytona during Speedweeks 2014. Dillon will compete in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race for GMS Racing, XFINITY Series for Richard Childress Racing and the Daytona 500 for Circle Sport Racing.
The other driver hoping to complete the trio is road racer Justin Marks, who’s competing in XFINITY and Cup for RAB Racing, while being tapped to drive the No. 35 Toyota Tundra for Win-Tron Racing. He was 33rd quickest in the first Daytona 500 practice.
Ryan Blaney replacing Bayne in the No. 21 Ford for Wood Bros. Racing was 29th quickest in a Team Penske prepared ride. Blaney declared eligibility in the NASCAR XFINITY Series for 2015, making him ineligible for Cup points should he win the Daytona 500 on Feb. 22. The other two Team Penske rides for Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski were 31st and 32nd quickest respectively.
Cole Whitt in a third Front Row Motorsports entry was 36th fastest.
Hendrick Motorsports other two entries solely focused on single-car runs with Jimmie Johnson (39th) and Jeff Gordon (40th) respectively. Gordon is entering his final season of Sprint Cup Series competition.
Reed Sorenson in the No. 44 Golden Corral Chevrolet for Team XTREME Racing was the slowest of the 48 cars that took time.
Martin Truex Jr., who sat on the front row with Furniture Row Racing last year did not participate in the first practice session.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
