Gilliland, others slap wall in Duels practice

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Daytona 500 pole-sitter David Gilliland escaped a wall-banging incident in the opening moments of Wednesday's first practice for Thursday's Gatorade Duel qualifying races at Daytona International Speedway.

It was one of several incidents that also involved the cars of Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards and Paul Menard at least -- but no cars were seriously damaged.

The most critical issues turned out to be a hole ground in the oil pan of Robby Gordon's No. 7 Ford which. When NASCAR informed him he could not replace the engine, it forced the team to remove the engine, replace the pan and reinstall the engine -- thus, he did not run in the second practice.

And NASCAR cleared Michael Waltrip Racing's back-up No. 55 Toyota to participate in the opening practice, but it never left the garage for either session.

NASCAR seized the owner/driver's primary car following Sunday's Bud Pole Qualifying session for the Daytona 500, after it previously had taken the car's original intake manifold when inspectors found a "substance" inside the manifold.

"He's got a back-up car and he's working on it right now getting it ready to practice," NASCAR president Mike Helton said after leaving a 15-minute meeting in Waltrip's hauler with NASCAR chairman Brian France, Waltrip and vice president/general manager Ty Norris.

Waltrip's team was later slapped with NASCAR's biggest fine to date, with two indefinite suspensions, 100 owner points and 100 driver points, in addition to monetary fines.

On the track, less than two hours after team owner Jack Roush said he probably wouldn't appeal NASCAR sanctions -- including a four-race suspension of crew chief Robbie Reiser -- against his No. 17 Ford Fusion team, driver Matt Kenseth posted the fastest time in the opening 55-minute practice, 47.801-second, 188.281 mph lap.

That didn't surprise interim crew chief Chip Bolen, the team engineer whom Roush named Tuesday to replace Reiser, Kenseth's crew chief for 255 of his 256 career starts.

"What Robbie has put together here is a machine that really runs well, as long as we all do our jobs," Bolen said of the seemingly seamless transition. "As long as we do, everything seems to take care of itself, so Matt's pretty happy with the car and we're trying to make sure the tire wear and fuel mileage and all that stuff is taken care of."

Second-year driver Reed Sorenson was second-fastest behind Kenseth but was wide-eyed after experiencing his first-pack practice of Speedweeks. (Continued)