Hendrick Motorsports’ Dale Earnhardt Jr. paces rain-shortened practice session at Daytona
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers got only about 40 minutes of practice Friday because of rain at Daytona International Speedway, and NASCAR will allow the eight drivers who did not get onto the track Friday to practice Saturday morning prior to time trials for the Daytona 500.
No one got more than five laps, and most drivers only got two on Friday as the practice was shortened from a scheduled 2 hours, 50 minutes.
Eight drivers – Kirk Shelmerdine, Terry Cook, David Gilliland, Martin Truex Jr., Norm Benning, Derrike Cope, Mike Wallace and Jeff Fuller – did not get onto track and will be allowed to take part in a 30-minute session at 9:30 a.m. Eastern on Saturday morning. They likely won’t get more than a couple of laps each in that session.
Time trials are scheduled for 1:05 p.m. Saturday and will determine the lineups for the 150-mile qualifying races. The time trials also will result in three drivers not currently guaranteed spots earning starting positions in the Daytona 500 with the final four qualifiers determined from the races on Thursday. There are 54 entries, with 18 drivers vying for seven open spots in the field.
Fastest in the short session Friday was Hendrick Motorsports’ Dale Earnhardt Jr., who turned a speed of 188.679 mph while his teammates Mark Martin (188.616) and Jeff Gordon (187.950) ranked second and third. Wood Brothers Racing’s Bill Elliott and Robby Gordon Motorsports’ Robby Gordon rounded out the top five.
