Dale Earnhardt Jr. leads final practice at Daytona

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s No. 88 Chevrolet — now affectionately dubbed “Amelia” — showed no signs of slowing down in Saturday’s final Sprint Cup practice at Daytona International Speedway. The Hendrick Motorsports driver topped the leaderboard with a fast lap of 197.131 mph around The World Center of Racing, bookending Daytona 500 practice sessions as he led opening practice earlier in this week.

Earnhardt will start third in Sunday’s Daytona 500 (1 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio) beside teammate and pole-sitter Chase Elliott.

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Team Penske teammates Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski and Wood Brothers Racing‘s Ryan Blaney — whose team has a technical alliance with Penske — drafted together throughout the session, putting them at the top of the leaderboard behind Earnhardt. Logano was second-fastest in his No. 22 ride (196.369 mph), while Blaney came up third in the No. 21 (196.288 mph). Keselowski rounded out the Ford trio with a fast lap of 196.262 mph from his No. 2 machine.

A pair of Stewart-Haas Racing cars — Kurt Busch (196.061 mph) and Kevin Harvick (196.014 mph) — completed the top six, respectively. Bush’s No. 41 team made extensive repairs to his car after incurring damage during the last-lap wreck of Thursday’s Duel No. 2.

Jimmie Johnson (18th-fastest), Matt Kenseth (21st-fastest) and Brian Scott (23rd-fastest) were the drivers in today’s practice now wheeling backup cars after wrecking in the Duels. Martin Truex Jr. and AJ Allmendinger, who did not turn a lap in the final session, will also come from the rear in backup rides.

Only 25 of the 40-car field participated in Saturday’s final practice.

FULL PRACTICE RESULTS