DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Ty Dillon and Bubba Wallace topped a pair of practice sessions for the season-opening Daytona 500 on Saturday afternoon at Daytona Int’l Speedway.
Dillon set the fastest lap of the day in the opening practice, circling the historic 2.5-mile superspeedway in 44.809 seconds for a speed of 203.592 mph.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was second fastest in the first session and overall with a fast lap of 44.293 seconds at 203.192 mph. Dillon and Stenhouse were the only drivers to top the 203 mph mark on Saturday.
Denny Hamlin was third fastest in the opening session, followed by Erik Jones and Martin Truex Jr. The top-13 drivers in the first practice all surpassed the 200 mph barrier on Saturday afternoon.
Wallace moved his Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet to the top of the speed charts during the second session, though he was more than a second off the time set by Dillon in the opening practice.
The driver of the No. 43 Chevrolet ran a best lap of 45.878 seconds at 196.172 mph. He was followed by rookie Cole Custer in the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford in second. Another rookie, John Hunter Nemechek, was third, followed by Alex Bowman and seven-time series champion Jimmie Johnson.
The only significant incident took place during the second practice. Brad Keselowski’s No. 2 Ford suffered damage to the ride side of the car in the garage area and he didn’t turn a lap in the second session. His team spent the practice repairing the damage to the car ahead of Daytona 500 qualifications on Sunday.
NASCAR Cup Series qualifying for the Daytona 500 is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. EST at Daytona Int’l Speedway.