DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- With a wider restrictor plate giving more speed and Daytona International Speedway's ancient pavement providing little grip for one last time, no less than nine drivers were upset after a three-car wreck in the first practice and a five-car melee on the backstretch midway through final practice forced seven teams to pull out backup cars.

Kyle Busch's crew gets the backup ready.

Coke Zero 400

Final Practice

Pos.	Driver	Speed
1.	Robby Gordon	195.126
2.	Greg Biffle	194.317
3.	Marcos Ambrose	194.250
4.	Kasey Kahne	194.217
5.	A.J. Allmendinger	194.133

• Final Practice | Practice 1

Plethora of crashes

• Busch, Ragan tangle
• Logano spins in final practice
• Rough day for JGR continues

Kasey Kahne, David Ragan and Kyle Busch were all forced to go to backup cars after getting caught up in the same incident 20 minutes into the first practice. It was the first of two wrecks for Busch on the day.

"I don't know what happened," said Kahne, who made 12 laps and was 20th in the first practice with a lap of 192.131 mph. "The No. 18 [Busch] and the No. 6 [Ragan] spun and they were down under the white line. I got slowed up and then the No. 6 came spinning back up and down the track again. I was surprised he came back up, but I just clipped him. I didn't hit him hard, but hard enough to ruin our car."

As Kahne predicted, his backup was actually better, by a half-second, than his primary car, as he was fourth in final practice with a lap of 194.217 mph.

"I was getting into Turn 3 and we got a little bit free and the No. 18 ran up the track and just barely touched us -- I didn't need much to help me go around because I was already a little free," said Ragan, who made 14 laps and was 14th in the first practice with a lap of 192.612. "I just needed a little bit of room to work with and the No. 18 was right there and probably took some air off our spoiler and touched us a little bit. That's unfortunate this early in practice to tear one up."

"The first one was really fast," Busch said of his role. "The No. 6 got loose in front of me and we just got hit from behind."

Busch actually hit Ragan's car twice before Ragan spun, then smashed Busch's car broadside, sending it into a spin to the inside of the race track, as well.

Busch's woes continued in final practice when, about 53 minutes into the session, he nicked the back of teammate Denny Hamlin's Toyota and turned it into Reed Sorenson's Red Bull Racing No. 83. As they raced by on the inside, Tony Stewart and Robert Richardson Jr. got caught up in the wreck.

"This one here was all my fault and we tore up a few others," Busch said. "It's just been one of those days. I hate it for the No. 11 [Hamlin], the No. 14 [Stewart], the No. 83 [Sorenson] -- the guys that got caught up in that. I misjudged it and just tried to jump back in line too fast and just hooked the No. 11 just enough, and then these speeds and there's not a whole lot of grip here, whether you're in the corners or on the straightaways.

"I just turned him sideways so I apologize to all of the guys involved. I hate it for them"

“

There’s definitely a lot of guys sliding around and with this new spoiler package the cars drove a bit different than what they have in previous years.

”

-- JOEY LOGANO

Busch and Hamlin, who intermittently have been involved in some disagreements this season, including wrecks, were seen on TV calmly discussing the accident. Hamlin's remarks were measured, as well.

"He was just sorry for misjudging it," Hamlin said of the teammates' conversation. "Pretty fortunate he didn't get damaged or have to go to another backup because we would've been short one car -- he was going to have to use this [No. 11 backup] car if he got damaged so obviously he can't take this one. Luckily we brought just the right amount of cars.

"We were going straight on the straightaway and that's what I didn't understand is, I got turned sideways, but I didn't feel a bump. So, it must've been the slightest of touches [but] it just doesn't take much. The bigger restrictor plate and the spoiler -- it just feels like our cars are constantly on edge -- you can't even really push draft like you used to at superspeedway racing.

"So, I think it's just two cars getting close to each other and that's what happens."

Hamlin, Sorenson, Richardson Jr. and Stewart were all forced into backups, with Stewart pitching-in and working under the hood of his No. 14 Chevrolet. Stewart's backup has twice been rebuilt after accidents, but it was the car he used to win the 2009 Coke Zero 400.

Within the first six minutes of final practice, Dale Earnhardt Jr. flat-sided his No. 88 when he slipped up the race track between Turns 1 and 2. He kept running and eventually logged 20 laps, which left him 29th on the time sheet at 191.849 mph.

About 23 minutes into final practice, the slick track prevented Practice 1 leader Joey Logano from staying on the yellow line as he attempted to get onto pit road, coming off Turn 4, and he was punted into a spin by Carl Edwards.

Edwards said he attempted to hit Logano as squarely in the middle of the back bumper as he could and the effort, while sending Logano into a wild spin to the inside of the Turn 4 skid pad, minimized the damage to the second-year driver's car.

"[Logano] was just slowing down to come into the pits and he came off the line a little bit. I couldn't go to the outside and I couldn't go to the inside, so I just hit him. I'm glad he didn't hit the wall and it didn't tear up our car very much at all, so no harm, no foul."

"Rookie mistake, I guess, you could call it -- I screwed up," Logano said. "I was going to come down pit road that lap and I started slipping up the race track and I started checking up too much and I didn't let Carl know good enough what I was trying to do."

Edwards' No. 99 Roush Fenway Ford suffered minor front end damage while Logano said his crew planned to replace his car's rear bumper. Both drivers were down on the final practice speed charts with Logano 20th (192.328 mph) and Edwards 31st (191.763 mph).

"We're lucky we didn't have more damage than we have, but I was just stupid about it," Logano said, before issuing a warning of sorts. "It's nothing easy about [driving these cars on this track in these conditions], I promise you that. There's definitely a lot of guys sliding around and with this new spoiler package the cars drove a bit different than what they have in previous years."