Practice report

NASCAR Cup Daytona 500

Daytona 500: Daniel Suarez completes sweep of Friday practices

Daniel Suarez established the fastest lap in Speedweeks practice with a speed of 203.179mph.

Lee Spencer

Edited: Feb 16, 2018, 9:15 PM

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Daniel Suarez, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Ryan Newman was second quick (202.945mph) followed by Michael McDowell, AJ Allmendinger, Kyle Busch, Paul Menard, Martin Truex Jr., Kasey Kahne, Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick.

The drafting started immediately in the fourth practice session with 24 cars in the pack. Kyle Busch initially posted the top speed of 202.689mph with nine Fords in tow. Just after the 10-minute mark, Suarez posted the fastest lap of 203.179mph, Newman, McDowell, Allmendinger, Kyle Busch, Menard, Truex Jr., Kahne, Keselowski and Harvick rounded out the top 10.

William Byron led a draft of his four Hendrick Motorsports teammates—Jimmie Johnson, Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman—along with Kyle Larson 15 minutes into practice. Larson had the fastest speed (199.530mph) of the five Chevrolets but his time was just 19th quick. After completing 24 laps, Larson, Byron, Bowman and Elliott retreated to the garage.

“I definitely like that,” Byron said after completing the exercise.

Thirty minutes into the session, the only action was limited to single-lap runs. Keselowski, Blaney and Jamie McMurray ran laps.

Kasey Kahne, Bowman, Truex and Suarez waited on pit road for Johnson to return to the track for another draft. With 10 minutes to go, crew chief Chad Knaus released the No. 48 from the garage. The five cars worked on swapping the lead. Truex pulled off after six laps while the four remaining drivers continued. The pack passed Danica Patrick but she struggled to suck up to the back of the draft. After finally running in the group, she reported that her car was directionally better but the brakes pulled unevenly at times.

Johnson’s 42 laps were the most completed during the session.

Only 29 of 40 drivers participated in the 50-minute session.

Cla#DriverManufacturerLapsTimeGapIntervalMph 1 19 mexico Daniel Suarez
Toyota 27 44.296 203.179 2 31 united_states Ryan Newman
Chevrolet 20 44.347 0.051 0.051 202.945 3 34 Michael McDowell
Ford 20 44.364 0.068 0.017 202.867 4 47 A.J. Allmendinger
Chevrolet 19 44.392 0.096 0.028 202.739 5 18 Kyle Busch
Toyota 16 44.403 0.107 0.011 202.689 6 21 Paul Menard
Ford 10 44.421 0.125 0.018 202.607 7 78 united_states Martin Truex Jr.
Toyota 24 44.447 0.151 0.026 202.488 8 95 Kasey Kahne
Chevrolet 23 44.457 0.161 0.010 202.443 9 2 Brad Keselowski
Ford 25 44.573 0.277 0.116 201.916 10 4 Kevin Harvick
Ford 19 44.591 0.295 0.018 201.834 11 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Ford 20 44.600 0.304 0.009 201.794 12 41 united_states Kurt Busch
Ford 20 44.604 0.308 0.004 201.776 13 14 Clint Bowyer
Ford 19 44.610 0.314 0.006 201.748 14 10 Aric Almirola
Ford 28 44.614 0.318 0.004 201.730 15 3 Austin Dillon
Chevrolet 5 44.629 0.333 0.015 201.663 16 20 Erik Jones
Toyota 13 44.720 0.424 0.091 201.252 17 6 united_states Trevor Bayne
Ford 17 44.726 0.430 0.006 201.225 18 00 Jeffrey Earnhardt
Chevrolet 9 45.089 0.793 0.363 199.605 19 42 Kyle Larson
Chevrolet 24 45.106 0.810 0.017 199.530 20 24 William Byron
Chevrolet 24 45.113 0.817 0.007 199.499 21 88 Alex Bowman
Chevrolet 34 45.120 0.824 0.007 199.468 22 9 united_states Chase Elliott
Chevrolet 24 45.120 0.824 0.000 199.468 23 48 Jimmie Johnson
Chevrolet 42 45.121 0.825 0.001 199.464 24 7 Danica Patrick
Chevrolet 14 45.328 1.032 0.207 198.553 25 13 Ty Dillon
Chevrolet 6 46.364 2.068 1.036 194.116 26 22 Joey Logano
Ford 14 46.442 2.146 0.078 193.790 27 38 united_states David Ragan
Ford 10 46.901 2.605 0.459 191.894 28 12 Ryan Blaney
Ford 11 46.947 2.651 0.046 191.706 29 1 Jamie McMurray
Chevrolet 18 47.002 2.706 0.055 191.481

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