Practice report
NASCAR Cup Daytona 500
Daytona 500: Darrell Wallace Jr. tops final practice
Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. will enter his first Daytona 500 as the fastest in the final practice session in preparation for Sunday’s race.
Jim Utter
Edited: Feb 17, 2018, 6:08 PM
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Wallace, in his first full season running in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series for Richard Petty Motorsports, topped the speed chart in Saturday’s final practice with an average lap speed of 196.954 mph.
In a 55-minute session that saw only 25 cars participate, Wallace took part in a 10-car draft early in the session.
“I had no idea we were at the top of the board. That just shows how focused we are,” Wallace said. “The first Daytona 500 for me and I couldn’t be more excited.
“It looks great out there, we’re fast and I’m feeling good.”
Daniel Suarez, who was fastest in both of Friday’s practices, ended up second-fastest (196.528 mph). Ryan Newman was third, rookie William Byron was fourth and Jimmie Johnson completed the top-five.
“We’re pretty excited. We feel like we have a good balance between speed and driveability,” said Newman’s crew chief, Luke Lambert. “We spent quite a bit of time yesterday drafting. The speeds that were running are unprecedented for Daytona.”
Rounding out the top 10 was A.J. Allmendinger, Trevor Bayne, Chase Elliott, Danica Patrick and Justin Marks.
Daytona 500 pole-winner Alex Bowman, who dropped back and elected not to compete for win in Thursday night’s qualifying race, completed just three laps in Saturday’s practice session and was 19th-fastest.
Asked if he was concerned about not having a lot of time drafting prior to the Sunday’s race, Bowman said, “For us, it’s a real testament to Hendrick Motorsports. We have three other cars to rely on set-up wise.
“We can take that and I just have to do my job driving it.”
The teams of Kyle Busch, Johnson, Allmendinger and Gray Gaulding lost the final 15 minutes of the practice session after each twice failed Daytona 500 qualifying inspection.
Among the teams that elected not to participate in the session were Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Erik Jones, reigning series champion Martin Truex Jr., Paul Menard and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Cla#DriverManufacturerLapsTimeGapIntervalMph 1 43 
Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 9 45.696 196.954 2 19 
Daniel Suarez Toyota 7 45.795 0.099 0.099 196.528 3 31 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 8 45.810 0.114 0.015 196.464 4 24 William Byron Chevrolet 8 45.829 0.133 0.019 196.382 5 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 7 45.847 0.151 0.018 196.305 6 47 A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 9 45.852 0.156 0.005 196.284 7 6 Trevor Bayne Ford 18 45.876 0.180 0.024 196.181 8 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 4 45.877 0.181 0.001 196.177 9 7 Danica Patrick Chevrolet 8 45.889 0.193 0.012 196.125 10 51 Justin Marks Chevrolet 9 45.931 0.235 0.042 195.946 11 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 6 45.931 0.235 0.000 195.946 12 22 Joey Logano Ford 17 46.316 0.620 0.385 194.317 13 41 Kurt Busch Ford 4 46.809 1.113 0.493 192.271 14 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 14 46.809 1.113 0.000 192.271 15 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 6 46.926 1.230 0.117 191.791 16 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 10 47.027 1.331 0.101 191.379 17 95 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 10 47.073 1.377 0.046 191.192 18 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 12 47.075 1.379 0.002 191.184 19 88 Alex Bowman Chevrolet 3 47.081 1.385 0.006 191.160 20 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 3 47.220 1.524 0.139 190.597 21 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 8 47.397 1.701 0.177 189.885 22 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 4 47.533 1.837 0.136 189.342 23 32 Matt DiBenedetto Ford 7 48.095 2.399 0.562 187.130 24 92 David Gilliland Ford 13 48.156 2.460 0.061 186.893 25 72 Corey Lajoie Chevrolet 2 48.546 2.850 0.390 185.391
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