Race report

NASCAR Cup Daytona 500

Bubba Wallace leads opening Daytona 500 practice

Bubba Wallace kicked off the first NASCAR Cup Series practice of the 2021 season putting his No. 23 Toyota at the top of the speed chart.

Jim Utter

Edited: Feb 11, 2021, 7:50 AM

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Wallace, in his first season driving for 23XI Racing – founded by NASCAR star Denny Hamlin and NBA Hall of Famer Michael Jordan – topped the 50-minute practice at Daytona International Speedway with an average lap speed of 199.746 mph.

Wallace posted the fast lap early in the practice session while five Toyotas briefly participated in a drafting run.

The session marked the first practice session for the Cup Series since March 6 of last year. Once the COVID-19 pandemic began, NASCAR eliminated all practice and qualifying sessions last season.

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Bubba Wallace's biggest challenge in 2021? "Delivering results"

This year, about eight Cup series race weekends will see practice and qualifying, including this week’s Daytona 500.

Martin Truex Jr. (199.693 mph) was second and Denny Hamlin (199.689 mph) – who has won the past two Daytona 500 races – was third. Kyle Busch and Christopher Bell rounded out the top-five.

Jamie McMurray was sixth-fastest (and the top Chevrolet), Corey LaJoie was seventh, Michael McDowell was eighth (and the top Ford), Ryan Newman was ninth and Cole Custer 10th.

All 44 entries for the Daytona 500 made it out during the session.

Qualifying to lock in the front row of the Daytona 500 begins at 7:30 p.m. ET tonight.

Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Mph 1 23 United States Bubba Wallace Toyota 20 45.057 199.747 2 19 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 19 45.069 0.012 0.012 199.694 3 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 20 45.070 0.013 0.001 199.689 4 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 19 45.084 0.027 0.014 199.627 5 20 Christopher Bell Toyota 22 45.085 0.028 0.001 199.623 6 77 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 13 45.145 0.088 0.060 199.358 7 7 United States Corey Lajoie Chevrolet 12 45.190 0.133 0.045 199.159 8 34 Michael McDowell Ford 14 45.236 0.179 0.046 198.957 9 6 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 11 45.307 0.250 0.071 198.645 10 41 Cole Custer Ford 15 45.387 0.330 0.080 198.295 11 43 Erik Jones Chevrolet 8 45.413 0.356 0.026 198.181 12 21 United States Matt DiBenedetto Ford 11 45.427 0.370 0.014 198.120 13 10 Aric Almirola Ford 13 45.489 0.432 0.062 197.850 14 17 Chris Buescher Ford 9 45.498 0.441 0.009 197.811 15 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 13 45.500 0.443 0.002 197.802 16 14 Chase Briscoe Ford 15 45.516 0.459 0.016 197.733 17 22 United States Joey Logano Ford 9 45.580 0.523 0.064 197.455 18 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 12 46.237 1.180 0.657 194.649 19 37 Ryan Preece Chevrolet 11 46.256 1.199 0.019 194.569 20 38 Anthony Alfredo Ford 10 46.373 1.316 0.117 194.078 21 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Chevrolet 6 46.897 1.840 0.524 191.910 22 5 United States Kyle Larson Chevrolet 13 47.279 2.222 0.382 190.359 23 48 Alex Bowman Chevrolet 8 47.465 2.408 0.186 189.613 24 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 5 47.489 2.432 0.024 189.518 25 99 Mexico Daniel Suarez Chevrolet 11 47.575 2.518 0.086 189.175 26 24 William Byron Chevrolet 8 47.599 2.542 0.024 189.080 27 1 United States Kurt Busch Chevrolet 12 47.602 2.545 0.003 189.068 28 96 Ty Dillon Toyota 6 47.611 2.554 0.009 189.032 29 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 11 47.680 2.623 0.069 188.758 30 16 Kaz Grala Chevrolet 1 47.781 2.724 0.101 188.359 31 36 David Ragan Ford 5 47.803 2.746 0.022 188.273 32 33 Austin Cindric Ford 7 47.828 2.771 0.025 188.174 33 8 United States Tyler Reddick Chevrolet 12 47.944 2.887 0.116 187.719 34 42 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 10 47.981 2.924 0.037 187.574 35 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 8 48.010 2.953 0.029 187.461 36 62 Noah Gragson Chevrolet 4 48.318 3.261 0.308 186.266 37 13 Garrett Smithley Ford 4 48.350 3.293 0.032 186.143 38 66 United States Timmy Hill Ford 5 48.352 3.295 0.002 186.135 39 00 Quin Houff Chevrolet 4 48.370 3.313 0.018 186.066 40 15 Derrike Cope Chevrolet 9 48.817 3.760 0.447 184.362 41 78 B.J. McLeod Ford 5 50.160 5.103 1.343 179.426 42 53 Joey Gase Ford 5 50.201 5.144 0.041 179.279 43 52 Josh Bilicki Ford 3 50.736 5.679 0.535 177.389 44 51 United States Cody Ware Chevrolet 2 50.821 5.764 0.085 177.092

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