Daytona 500: William Byron leads eventful pre-qualifying practice

Byron led 18 laps with a top speed of 201.681mph. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who won two of the four restrictor plate races in 2017, ran second (201.649) followed by Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, David Ragan, Paul Menard, Trevor Bayne, Daniel Suarez, Ryan Blaney and Michael McDowell.

“It was awesome," said Byron. "The car has a lot of speed.  The new Camaro is great.  The new ride height rule makes it a little different.  The cars drive a little different, but a lot of speed in it so hopefully that means good things for the Daytona 500 and we can just kind of get through the week smooth. Learned a lot in that little draft pack that we had right there.  Hopefully, that applies in the (Can-Am) Duels and I can keep that going.”

The drafting began early in second practice with Suarez setting the pace with a speed of 197.316mph. Before the 20-minute mark, Danica Patrick topped Suarez with a lap of 197.685mph. Hamlin ran third (197.304) followed by Ty Dillon (197.282), Matt DiBenedetto (197.087), Brendan Gaughan (197.010), DJ Kennington (196.708), Jeffrey Earnhardt (196.292) Alex Bowman (194.452) and Kurt Busch (194.187).

Halfway through the session, Kasey Kahne led a pack of Chevys with Bubba Wallace and Ty Dillon in tow. Kahne climbed up to ninth (195.993) followed by Wallace in 10th (195.933). Dillon’s 19 laps were the most completed to that point.

Just before the 30-minute mark, William Byron joined the conga line. Byron bounced up to 10th. Over the next 10 minutes, he posted the top speed of 201.681mph with a push from Menard. With a third of the field in the pack, Byron’s car wiggled and nearly made contact with Hamlin.

“That was the place I got free, when he got to my outside,” Byron told spotter Tab Boyd.

Logano, Hamlin, Ragan, Menard, Bayne, Suarez, Stenhouse, Blaney and McDowell rounded out the top 10. Stenhouse moved up to second with 10 minutes remaining. Logano, Hamlin, Ragan, Menard, Bayne, Suarez, Blaney and McDowell completed the top 10.

“I feel pretty comfortable there,” Ragan said. “There’s a little bit of a disadvantage at the bottom… Not as good as I had hoped for.”

With two minutes to go, Gray Gaulding made the first laps of the weekend in the No. 23 BK Racing car.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	18	44.625			201.681
2	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	13	44.632	0.007	0.007	201.649
3	22	Joey Logano	Ford	20	44.641	0.016	0.009	201.608
4	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	24	44.673	0.048	0.032	201.464
5	38	David Ragan	Ford	15	44.764	0.139	0.091	201.054
6	21	Paul Menard	Ford	14	44.770	0.145	0.006	201.027
7	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	10	44.915	0.290	0.145	200.378
8	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	21	44.949	0.324	0.034	200.227
9	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	12	45.056	0.431	0.107	199.751
10	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	11	45.116	0.491	0.060	199.486
11	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	18	45.153	0.528	0.037	199.322
12	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	15	45.153	0.528	0.000	199.322
13	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	13	45.166	0.541	0.013	199.265
14	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	10	45.357	0.732	0.191	198.426
15	51	Justin Marks	Chevrolet	13	45.430	0.805	0.073	198.107
16	7	Danica Patrick	Chevrolet	12	45.527	0.902	0.097	197.685
17	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	22	45.620	0.995	0.093	197.282
18	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	9	45.665	1.040	0.045	197.087
19	62	Brendan Gaughan	Chevrolet	19	45.683	1.058	0.018	197.010
20	96	D.J. Kennington	Toyota	5	45.753	1.128	0.070	196.708
21	00	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Chevrolet	12	45.850	1.225	0.097	196.292
22	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.	Chevrolet	18	45.909	1.284	0.059	196.040
23	95	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	18	45.918	1.293	0.009	196.002
24	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	6	46.272	1.647	0.354	194.502
25	88	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	1	46.284	1.659	0.012	194.452
26	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	7	46.347	1.722	0.063	194.187
27	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	9	46.371	1.746	0.024	194.087
28	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	7	46.433	1.808	0.062	193.828
29	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	1	46.433	1.808	0.000	193.828
30	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	4	46.441	1.816	0.008	193.794
31	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	15	46.630	2.005	0.189	193.009
32	20	Erik Jones	Toyota	8	46.652	2.027	0.022	192.918
33	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	3	46.725	2.100	0.073	192.616
34	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	8	46.760	2.135	0.035	192.472
35	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	7	47.294	2.669	0.534	190.299
36	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	8	47.302	2.677	0.008	190.267
37	92	David Gilliland	Ford	12	47.752	3.127	0.450	188.474
38	72	Corey Lajoie	Chevrolet	8	49.062	4.437	1.310	183.441
39	66	Mark Thompson	Ford	2	49.195	4.570	0.133	182.945
40	23	Gray Gaulding	Toyota	1	50.239	5.614	1.044	179.144