Denny Hamlin leads Friday’s Daytona 500 practice

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Denny Hamlin was the fastest in Friday’s Cup Series practice session at Daytona International Speedway.

Hamlin led the way with a lap of 197.477 mph. Erik Jones was second with a lap of 197.468 mph. Christopher Bell (197.429 mph), Ty Gibbs (197.394 mph) and John Hunter Nemechek (197.33 mph) rounded out the top five.

Friday’s session was the first practice for Cup Series drivers ahead of Sunday’s Daytona 500. They had 50 minutes to complete laps around the 2.5-mile superspeedway. Every driver except for Anthony Alfredo took practice laps during the session.

Toyota drivers took the top eight spots on the leaderboard. Michael McDowell was the fastest Ford driver in ninth. He posted a lap of 194.569 mph. Austin Dillon was the fastest Chevrolet driver in 15th. He posted a lap of 193.919 mph.

Several drivers were in repaired cars after incidents in Thursday’s Daytona 500 qualifying races. This list included Dillon, Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Todd Gilliland, Riley Herbst, AJ Allmendinger, Harrison Burton and David Ragan.

Noah Gragson, Kyle Busch, William Byron, Ryan Blaney and Daniel Hemric all went to backup cars after Thursday’s qualifying races. Blaney was the fastest among those in backup cars as he posted the 13th-fastest lap at 194.355 mph. Busch was just behind in 16th with a lap of 192.69 mph.

Chris Buescher was not part of Friday’s practice session. He flew home to North Carolina to be with his wife for the birth of their second child. David Ragan completed four laps in Buescher’s No. 17 Ford in advance of the Daytona 500 and posted a best speed of 181.053 mph.

The Cup Series drivers have their final practice session scheduled for Saturday at 10:30 a.m. ET. FS1 will provide coverage.