Practice 4 recap | RELATED: Practice 4 results | Full schedule for Daytona
Twenty-five drivers hit the track for Wednesday’s second session with all eight drivers who skipped the day’s first practice bringing their cars out for the later one. Originally slated for 45-minutes, NASCAR granted the field an additional five minutes after a multi-car wreck interrupted the second session.
After dealing with oil on the 2.5-mile track — which brought out the red roughly 20 minutes into the session — 2016 Rookie of the Year candidate Brian Scott topped Wednesday’s final practice. The wheelman for the No. 44 Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet posted a fastest lap of 199.800 mph.
Ty Dillon‘s No. 95 was the culprit of the leaked oil after his oil cooler cracked on his Chevrolet. This triggered a crash involving Ryan Newman, Michael Waltrip, Kyle Larson, David Gilliland and 2015 NASCAR XFINITY Series champion Chris Buescher.
“The 95 sprung a leak in front of us and it was just a chain reaction of events,” Ryan Newman voiced. “It wasn’t Michael’s (Waltrip) fault.”
Austin Dillon was able to avoid the on-track wreck and scored second on the leaderboard after propelling his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet around DIS at 199.769 mph. 2015 Sprint Cup Series Champion Kyle Busch was right behind him, posting the third-fastest speed on the clock (199.729 mph).
The No. 48 of two-time Daytona 500 winner Jimmie Johnson (199.645 mph) and the No. 27 of Paul Menard (199.601 mph) were fourth and fifth, respectively.
On-track action will pick back up on Thursday with the Sprint Cup Series final practice (Noon, FS1).
Practice 3 recap | RELATED: Practice 3 results
Michael McDowell topped the leaderboard for Wednesdsay’s first practice at Daytona International Speedway, wheeling his No. 59 Circle Sport-Leavine Family Racing Chevrolet at 200.173 mph for the fastest lap of the 45-minute session. McDowell was the only driver to break the 200 mph mark during the session.
Second-fastest was the No. 6 of 2011’s Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne who accelerated his Ford around the 2.5-mile track at 199.916 mph.
The No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford of Greg Biffle (199.619 mph), the No. 17 RFR Ford of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (199.252 mph) and the No. 13 Germain Racing Chevrolet of Casey Mears (199.164 mph) rounded out the top five.
Polesitter Chase Elliott finished eighth on the leaderboard with a fastest lap of 198.286 mph.
Eight drivers stayed out of this session: Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Michael Waltrip, Martin Truex Jr. and the entire four-car team of Joe Gibbs Racing (Denny Hamlin, defending series champion Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth).