Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. led the way in Friday’s first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice session.
Busch, who got into an incident with Jimmie Johnson in the first of Thursday night’s two Daytona 500 qualifying races, bolted to the top of the speed chart with an average lap speed of 200.284 mph late in the session at Daytona International Speedway.
His JGR teammate, Truex, was second (200.200 mph) and rookie Ryan Preece was third (200.169 mph). Erik Jones and Ryan Newman completed the top-five.
Rounding out the Top 10 were Matt DiBenedetto, Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace, David Ragan and Chase Elliott.
Hamlin posted the fastest average lap speed among the drivers who ran at least 10 consecutive laps (198.107 mph). DiBenedetto and Jones were second and third, respectively, in that category.
Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Mph| 1 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 15 | 44.936 | 200.285 | ||
| 2 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | 19 | 44.955 | 0.019 | 0.019 | 200.200 |
| 3 | 47 | Ryan Preece | Chevrolet | 17 | 44.962 | 0.026 | 0.007 | 200.169 |
| 4 | 20 | Erik Jones | Toyota | 14 | 44.965 | 0.029 | 0.003 | 200.156 |
| 5 | 6 | Ryan Newman | Ford | 21 | 44.979 | 0.043 | 0.014 | 200.093 |
| 6 | 95 | Matt DiBenedetto | Toyota | 18 | 44.982 | 0.046 | 0.003 | 200.080 |
| 7 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 18 | 44.990 | 0.054 | 0.008 | 200.044 |
| 8 | 43 | Darrell Wallace Jr. | Chevrolet | 28 | 45.084 | 0.148 | 0.094 | 199.627 |
| 9 | 38 | David Ragan | Ford | 20 | 45.159 | 0.223 | 0.075 | 199.296 |
| 10 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Chevrolet | 16 | 45.179 | 0.243 | 0.020 | 199.208 |
| 11 | 13 | Ty Dillon | Chevrolet | 23 | 45.242 | 0.306 | 0.063 | 198.930 |
| 12 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | 21 | 45.244 | 0.308 | 0.002 | 198.921 |
| 13 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Ford | 20 | 45.309 | 0.373 | 0.065 | 198.636 |
| 14 | 62 | Brendan Gaughan | Chevrolet | 8 | 45.338 | 0.402 | 0.029 | 198.509 |
| 15 | 8 | Daniel Hemric | Chevrolet | 26 | 45.392 | 0.456 | 0.054 | 198.273 |
| 16 | 24 | William Byron | Chevrolet | 32 | 45.397 | 0.461 | 0.005 | 198.251 |
| 17 | 31 | Tyler Reddick | Chevrolet | 22 | 45.404 | 0.468 | 0.007 | 198.220 |
| 18 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | 27 | 45.411 | 0.475 | 0.007 | 198.190 |
| 19 | 14 | Clint Bowyer | Ford | 12 | 45.460 | 0.524 | 0.049 | 197.976 |
| 20 | 27 | Casey Mears | Chevrolet | 11 | 45.586 | 0.650 | 0.126 | 197.429 |
| 21 | 96 | Parker Kligerman | Toyota | 8 | 45.820 | 0.884 | 0.234 | 196.421 |
| 22 | 37 | Chris Buescher | Chevrolet | 9 | 46.203 | 1.267 | 0.383 | 194.793 |
| 23 | 88 | Alex Bowman | Chevrolet | 20 | 46.617 | 1.681 | 0.414 | 193.063 |
| 24 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Ford | 12 | 46.660 | 1.724 | 0.043 | 192.885 |
| 25 | 22 | Joey Logano | Ford | 13 | 46.716 | 1.780 | 0.056 | 192.653 |
| 26 | 00 | Landon Cassill | Chevrolet | 16 | 46.894 | 1.958 | 0.178 | 191.922 |
| 27 | 40 | Jamie McMurray | Chevrolet | 18 | 46.953 | 2.017 | 0.059 | 191.681 |
| 28 | 36 | Matt Tifft | Ford | 4 | 46.993 | 2.057 | 0.040 | 191.518 |
| 29 | 41 | Daniel Suarez | Ford | 9 | 46.999 | 2.063 | 0.006 | 191.493 |
| 30 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Ford | 13 | 47.013 | 2.077 | 0.014 | 191.436 |
| 31 | 1 | Kurt Busch | Chevrolet | 18 | 47.207 | 2.271 | 0.194 | 190.650 |
| 32 | 21 | Paul Menard | Ford | 18 | 47.261 | 2.325 | 0.054 | 190.432 |
| 33 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Ford | 10 | 47.322 | 2.386 | 0.061 | 190.186 |
| 34 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Ford | 9 | 47.353 | 2.417 | 0.031 | 190.062 |
| 35 | 42 | Kyle Larson | Chevrolet | 21 | 47.486 | 2.550 | 0.133 | 189.530 |
| 36 | 32 | Corey Lajoie | Ford | 12 | 47.818 | 2.882 | 0.332 | 188.214 |