Brad Keselowski topped the leaderboard in Saturday’s final NASCAR Cup Series practice session at Daytona International Speedway for Sunday’s 67th running of the Daytona 500 (1:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The No. 6 RFK Racing Ford driver set the pace at 193.307 mph over Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman (193.274 mph) and Haas Factory Team’s Cole Custer (193.212 mph).
This was an important session for Keselowski, who did not set a time in Friday’s practice while his team continued to prepare his backup car after the primary car suffered damage in his Duel race Thursday night.
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Justin Allgaier (193.204 mph) and Kyle Larson (193.195 mph) rounded out the top five.
Corey LaJoie (193.166 mph), Ryan Preece (193.029 mph), Justin Haley (193.005 mph), Chris Buescher (192.806 mph) and Zane Smith (192.707 mph) completed the top 10.
Like Keselowski, Justin Haley, Shane van Gisbergen and Daniel Suárez did not participate in practice on Friday but all got valuable on-track time in the final session Saturday before the 500-mile crown jewel race.
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Van Gisbergen and Suárez were 18th and 19th fastest, respectively. Their Trackhouse Racing teammate Hélio Castroneves got 14 laps of practice under his belt in his repaired No. 91 Chevrolet, setting the 20th fastest time at 189.629 mph.
Early Saturday afternoon, Castroneves finished fifth in the ARCA Menards Series season opener at Daytona, driving the No. 82 Pinnacle Racing Group Chevrolet.
Only 24 drivers participated in this session, while the rest of the field shifted their focus to the “Great American Race.” Many on-track participants turned laps in the draft and practiced execution on the pit road.