The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series took the track today at the Daytona International Speedway after rain washed out testing all day on Thursday. It was a pretty clean day of on-track action during the eight plus hour event with 40 of the 42 cars taking laps.
Austin Dillon led the field on the testing speed chart with a fast time of 46.128 seconds, 195.109 mph. Dillon ran a total laps of 38 in single car runs with his fastest lap on lap 18 of the afternoon. The top-three cars today was all Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet’s.
Brian Scott finished the day off in the second spot right behind his teammate Austin Dillon with a lap of 46.253 seconds, 194.582 mph. Scott was just 0.125 seconds off of the leaders best time of the test session. He will make his first ever Daytona 500 start next February.
Paul Menard had some personal issues come up during the weekend and had to leave Daytona so Richard Childress Racing called up Matt Crafton. His fastest lap came on his 53rd lap of the day with a time of 46.310 seconds, 194.342 mph. Crafton will also test Monday and Tuesday to prepare for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season opener also next month.
Aric Almirola finished off the night in the fourth spot and was the highest Ford in the session with a lap of 193.828 mph, 46.433 seconds. Almirola posted his fast time in drafting on his 44th lap of the evening. He ran a total of 52 laps during the session.
Sprint Cup Series rookie Kyle Larson rounded out the fifth place driver after posting a fast lap of 46.533 seconds, 193.411 mph after running a total of 73 laps of the day. Larson’s best time came on his 57th lap of the afternoon. He hopes testing will take him to a great finish in his first Daytona 500.
Testing will resume tomorrow with the NASCAR Nationwide Series starting at 9:00 a.m. Et. at Daytona. Fox Sports 1 will offer taped delayed coverage starting at three and run until seven eastern. You can watch the live leaderboard on nascar.com.
About Me: Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. He has written for racingonfuel.com and theracingwheel.com. Currently, Brett writes for motorsportsnat.com and TracksideChatter.com. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.
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