Daniel Suarez topped the speed chart in Friday’s second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice for the Daytona 500 after leading in the day’s opening session, as well. He also gained quite a bit of speed, up to 203.179 mph in the latter session.
Suarez took the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota up to 199.840 mph in the day’s first practice, which was the third Monster Energy Series practice overall for Sunday’s race (2:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Ryan Newman was second-fastest at 202.945 mph in the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Michael McDowell (202.867 mph), AJ Allmendinger (202.739 mph) and Kyle Busch (202.689 mph) completed the top five on the leaderboard.
Only 29 of the 40 Daytona 500 entries made laps in Friday’s second practice session.
Daniel Suarez led Friday’s first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice session for the Daytona 500 with a top speed of 199.840 mph in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
Teammate Denny Hamlin was second on the speed chart at Daytona International Speedway, topping out the No. 11 Toyota at 199.743 mph. Fellow Toyota driver and series defending champion Martin Truex Jr. was third at 199.694 mph.
David Ragan was fourth-quickest in the No. 38 Ford (199.650 mph), and Danica Patrick’s 199.406 mph in the No. 7 Chevrolet rounded out the top five.
Daytona 500 polesitter Alex Bowman was 18th-fastest at 196.721 mph in the first of two Friday practice sessions.
After a wild night of racing Thursday in the Can-Am Duels with several wrecks, Friday’s early practice laps were the first in backup cars for the No. 2 of Brad Keselowski, No. 3 of Austin Dillon, No. 10 of Aric Almirola, No. 24 of William Byron, No. 42 of Kyle Larson and No. 48 of Jimmie Johnson. Matt DiBenedetto and David Gilliland, who also went to backup cars, did not make any practice laps in the session.
Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney, winners of the Can-Am Duels, kept their speeds at the lower end of the practice charts Friday.
Seven cars had a 15-minute practice hold for being late to inspection: No. 7 of Danica Patrick, No. 23 of Gray Gaulding, No. 34 of Michael McDowell, No. 38 of David Ragan, No. 47 of AJ Allmendinger, No. 62 of Brendan Gaughan and No. 66 of Mark Thompson.
RELATED: Practice 1 results | Practice 2 results