Wallace, Dillon lead first two Daytona 500 practices
Jeff Curry | Getty Images
Bubba Wallace steered his No. 43 Chevrolet to the top spot on the second Daytona 500 practice leaderboard Saturday at Daytona International Speedway. The Richard Petty Motorsports driver maxed out at 196.172 mph in five laps.
Two rookies followed Wallace on the board. Cole Custer was a close second at 196.108 mph in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford. John Hunter Nemechek was then third at 196.040 mph in his No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford.
RELATED: Second practice results | Lap averages | Speedweeks schedule
Hendrick Motorsports then occupied the next four spots. Alex Bowman was fourth at 195.088 mph. Jimmie Johnson, making his last full-time run this season, closed out the top five at 194.835 mph. Chase Elliott and William Byron were next in sixth (194.317 mph) and seventh (194.25 mph), respectively.
Denny Hamlin (194.15 mph), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (194.124 mph) and Clint Bowyer (193.836 mph) made up the rest of the top 10.
Unlike in this first practice, no one broke 200 mph this time around.
Before even getting on track, Brad Keselowski damaged the bottom ride side of his No. 2 Team Penske Ford in the garage. His team chose to fix the car rather than go to a backup. Keselowski did not turn any laps after finishing 21st in the first practice at 197.247 mph.
The NASCAR Cup Series will return to the track Sunday at 12:30 p.m. ET for the Daytona 500 Busch Pole Qualifying on FOX.