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RELATED: Junior returns at Daytona | Practice results

Dale Earnhardt Jr. returned to competition for the first time in seven months, but it was Joey Logano in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford who led qualifying practice for the Daytona 500 on Saturday at Daytona International Speedway.

Logano’s fastest lap of 193.116 mph held firm at the top of the leaderboard after the nearly four-hour practice session and gave him a boost heading into Coors Light Pole Qualifying on Sunday (3:10 p.m. ET, FOX).

 However, lots of eyes were on Junior, who missed the final 18 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races in 2016 because of a concussion. Thirty minutes into practice, Junior climbed into the car, then after a debris caution 20 minutes later the No. 88 Chevrolet SS for Hendrick Motorsports took the track.

Earnhardt Jr.’s first lap was 17th-fastest at 190.504 mph. Junior finished the session in 11th place at 192.670 mph.

"It felt good to just get out there and get to work a little bit and be with the guys and see all the familiar faces in the garage, other drivers and team members and so forth," Earnhardt Jr. said. "Yeah, just trying to put as many laps as I can behind me and get further and further into this deal to where the events from last year become more of a distant memory and don’t define me as who I am so much anymore."

Behind Logano in second and third place, respectively, were Aric Almirola and Brad Keselowski, both in Fords. Rounding out the top five at the 2.5-mile superspeedway were Kyle Larson in the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet and another Ford driven by Wood Brothers Racing‘s Ryan Blaney.

This was the only practice scheduled before Sunday’s single-car, two-round qualifying that will set the front row for the 59th running of The Great American Race.

MORE: How the field is set for the Daytona 500

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# Car Driver Team
1 33 Jeffrey Earnhardt Little Joes Autos/Curtis Key Plumbing Chevrolet
2 51 * Timmy Hill(i) Spoonful of Music Foundation/Bubba Burger Chevrolet
3 83 * Corey LaJoie Dustless Blasting Toyota
4 96 * DJ Kennington Lordco/Castrol Toyota
5 55 * Reed Sorenson Toyota
6 23 Joey Gase(i) Best Home Furnishings Toyota
7 15 Michael Waltrip Aaron’s Toyota
8 72 Cole Whitt Florida Lottery Ford
9 37 Chris Buescher Cottonelle Mega Roll Chevrolet
10 7 * Elliott Sadler(i) Golden Corral Chevrolet
11 75 * Brendan Gaughan(i) Beard Oil Distributing Chevrolet
12 38 David Ragan Camping World Ford
13 32 Matt DiBenedetto EJ Wade Construction Ford
14 34 Landon Cassill Love’s Ford
15 95 Michael McDowell K-Love Radio Chevrolet
16 3 Austin Dillon DOW Chevrolet
17 47 AJ Allmendinger Kroger Click List Chevrolet
18 10 Danica Patrick Aspen Dental Ford
19 1 Jamie McMurray Cessna McDonald’s Chevrolet
20 78 Martin Truex Jr. Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER BOATS Toyota
21 13 Ty Dillon # GEICO Chevrolet
22 24 Chase Elliott NAPA Chevrolet
23 4 Kevin Harvick Jimmy John’s Ford
24 18 Kyle Busch M&M’s Toyota
25 27 Paul Menard Menards/Peak Chevrolet
26 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Express Toyota
27 77 Erik Jones # 5-hour Energy Extra Strength Toyota
28 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe’s Chevrolet
29 20 Matt Kenseth DeWalt Toyota
30 31 Ryan Newman Caterpillar Chevrolet
31 41 Kurt Busch Haas Automation/Monster Energy Ford
32 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Nationwide Chevrolet
33 14 Clint Bowyer Mobil 1 Ford
34 6 Trevor Bayne AdvoCare Ford
35 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Fastenal Ford
36 5 Kasey Kahne Farmers Insurance Chevrolet
37 19 Daniel Suarez # ARRIS Toyota
38 21 Ryan Blaney Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Ford
39 42 Kyle Larson Target Chevrolet
40 2 Brad Keselowski Miller Lite Ford
41 43 Aric Almirola Smithfield Foods Ford
42 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford

* Required to qualify on time, (i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he intends to race "for more years," but NASCAR’s most popular driver also said he won’t sit down to discuss his contract with team owner Rick Hendrick until he’s confident his health isn’t an issue.

Earnhardt, 42, missed the final 18 races of the 2016 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season while recovering from a concussion suffered at mid-season.

He is in the final year of his contract as driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.

"I told Rick (Hendrick) that I would like to get a couple of races, a couple of months under my belt to get confidence in my health," Earnhardt said Saturday at Daytona International Speedway, site of next week’s season-opening Daytona 500.

"This is the only reason I feel that way. There’s no underlying crap about it. When I got hurt last year, what I saw it put the company through, how I saw it frustrate certain aspects of the company — maybe not frustrate but it put a strain on our relationships. Our partners were worried about my future, Rick and everybody was worried. I don’t want to do that again.

"I want to get some races under my belt and get confidence in my health before I can commit to him. I don’t want to make him a promise that I can’t deliver on.

"Once I feel like, ‘You know what? I think I’m good. I think I can withstand the wear and tear of driving these cars to do a couple more years,’ I’m ready to do it. Because I want to race; I want to be here and I want to race."

Earnhardt joined Hendrick Motorsports in 2008 after eight seasons with Dale Earnhardt Inc., the company founded by his father, the seven-time series champion and inaugural NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee. Nine of his 26 career victories have come since the move to HMS.

In addition to competing for HMS, Earnhardt also co-owns JR Motorsports, a race organization that fields four teams in NASCAR’s XFINITY Series.

He will make his first start since his injury next week here at DIS. He’s a two-time winner of the Daytona 500 and considered one of the sport’s best on the big superspeedways, where NASCAR mandates the use of restrictor plates to limit speeds.

Retirement has been on his mind, Earnhardt admitted, even before last season’s setback. But he said the injury made him realize that it might now be best to put off such thoughts until he knows his health isn’t a concern. Earnhardt said in December that he hoped to sit down and discuss a contract extension before the ’17 season got underway.

"I’ve been trying over the last year or two to put a number on it, say, ‘This is when I’m going to retire,’" he said. "’This will be the year or the day or the age.’ But I’ve decided that maybe it’s best that I don’t. Considering my health, I can’t even think about putting a date on it because I don’t know what’s going to happen to me going forward.

"I want to get a couple of races under my belt, a couple of months, and then we’ll sit down and say, ‘You know, if everything is going great and we haven’t had any issues, I’m confident to continue to race.’"

Earnhardt has twice signed five-year contracts with HMS – the first from 2008 through ’12 and the most recent, an extension which ran from 2013-17.

Hendrick Motorsports also fields Monster Energy Series teams for seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne and Chase Elliott.

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RELATED: Starting lineup

 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Persistent rain on Saturday night forced postponement of the Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona.
 
The race has been rescheduled for Sunday morning, with the green flag at 11:35 a.m., broadcast on FS1. The Clash will precede Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series qualifying for the Daytona 500, which will take place at 3 p.m. Sunday at Daytona International Speedway.
 
With starting positions drawn by lot, Brad Keselowski will lead the field to the green flag in the Clash. Denny Hamlin, the defending winner of the exhibition race that signals the start of the NASCAR season, will start on the outside of the front row.
 
Hamlin is seeking to become the first back-to-back winner of the event since Kevin Harvick in 2009-2010.
 
The 17-driver field includes Coors Light Pole Award winners from the previous season, playoff drivers from the previous season, former Clash winners and former Daytona 500 pole winners who competed full-time in 2016.
 
Sunoco rookie Daniel Suarez was added to the field after Carl Edwards unexpectedly stepped away from NASCAR racing in early January. Because Joe Gibbs Racing‘s preparation of Edwards’ cars was at an advanced stage when Edwards announced his departure from the No. 19 Toyota, Suarez was allowed to compete in the Clash as his successor.
 
Edwards led the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series with six poles in 2016.

 

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Editor’s note: Every Friday during the season, "Tweets You Might Have Missed" presents eight of the best NASCAR-related tweets from the week. 

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The 2016 Daytona 500 winner is ready to defend his "Great American Race" title, but before he can do that, Denny Hamlin will race in the Advance Auto Parts Clash on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET (FS1) at Daytona International Speedway.


And he will look stylish in the season-opening non-points race. Hamlin revealed Thursday via Twitter that his shoes, a custom pair from Michael Jordan’s line, for the 75-lap event have a special meaning — a tribute to significant moments in his career. 



The shoe includes an outline of Richmond International Raceway, honoring Hamlin’s first win in 2002, according to his tweet. He now has three career wins at the .75-mile track, which is also his home track, in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.


Also, "I can I wi11" is written on the tongue of his Jordans to represent the 36-year-old’s motto while recovering from a back injury in 2013. The 11 is his car number with Joe Gibbs Racing.

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Greg Biffle took to Twitter on Friday to reveal that he has no plans to race full-time in NASCAR in 2017.

Instead, Biffle will be working as a reccurring analyst on NBC Sports Network’s "NASCAR America," and he will serve as a guest analyst for Motor Racing Network’s radio broadcast of the NASCAR XFINITY Series opener on Feb. 25 at Daytona International Speedway.

A 19-time winner in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Biffle parted ways with Roush Fenway Racing right after the 2016 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway following a 19-year run together in NASCAR. With Roush, Biffle won the 2002 NASCAR XFINITY Series title and the 2000 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship.

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Feb. 17, 2017) – NASCAR today announced updates to its concussion protocol for competitors, adding a consistent screening tool for all venues and increasing available neurological support for race event weekends through its new partnership with AMR.

 

“NASCAR has worked very closely with the industry to ensure our concussion protocol reflects emerging best practices in this rapidly developing area of sports medicine,” said Jim Cassidy, NASCAR senior vice president of racing operations. “We will continue to utilize relationships we’ve had for years with leaders in the neurological research field who helped to shape these updates.”

 

NASCAR’s protocol now includes:

• As part of the new rule regarding damaged vehicles, a driver whose car sustains damage from an accident or contact of any kind and goes behind the pit wall or to the garage is required to visit the Infield Care Center to be evaluated.

 

• The medical portion of NASCAR’s Event Standards now require that Infield Care Center physicians incorporate the SCAT-3 diagnostic tool in screening for head injuries.

 

• AMR will provide on-site neurological consultative support at select NASCAR events during the 2017 season and will work directly with NASCAR in the continued development of concussion protocol.

 

The new protocol goes into effect immediately for all NASCAR national series.

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Joe Gibbs Racing and Tide have entered into a sponsorship agreement for the team’s No. 20 Toyota and driver Matt Kenseth for the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.


The partnership, announced Friday, gives Tide’s PODS product the primary sponsorship for three races — March 19 at Phoenix, July 23 at Indianapolis and Oct. 7 at Charlotte. The deal includes associate sponsorship in the series’ remaining events.


Tide’s return to the No. 20 Camry comes on the heels of last year’s one-race deal for the annual NASCAR Throwback Weekend at Darlington Raceway. Kenseth’s car took cues from Tide’s rich history in the sport, with its classic bright paint scheme campaigned over the years by Darrell Waltrip, Ricky Rudd and Ricky Craven.


"I’m glad they expanded their role, I think it’s exciting for NASCAR and fans as well because they were such a common name in the sport for so many years," Kenseth said. "You always noticed that car on the track. I think getting it back on the track is pretty cool for the sport."

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RELATED: How The Clash works

The starting lineup is set for the Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona following a random drawing Friday at Daytona International Speedway.

 

The 17-driver race takes place at 8 p.m. ET Saturday, with TV coverage on FS1 and radio coverage on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

 

Below is the lineup for the 75-lap, non-points event. Check here for a complete breakdown on how the event works, and then see the lineup below.