Practice report

NASCAR Cup Daytona II

Clint Bowyer leads Ford armada in first Cup practice at Daytona

Clint Bowyer led a Ford Performance sweep of the top-five positions in Thursday’s first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Daytona.

Jim Utter

Edited: Jul 5, 2018, 7:53 PM

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Clint Bowyer, Stewart-Haas Racing, Chevrolet Camaro Haas 30 Years of the VF1

With many of the Ford drivers working together later in the 55-minute session, Bowyer vaulted to the top of the leaderboard with an average lap speed of 200.799 mph.

Bowyer’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammate, Aric Almirola was second (200.691 mph) and Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski was third (200.553 mph). Fellow Ford drivers Ryan Blaney and Kurt Busch completed the top-five.

“I think it’s your typical speedway, especially now that we’re getting down close to playoff time and the cutoff line is getting pretty close,” Blaney said. “There are people who really need to get stage points, stage wins and come down to the end of the race you really need a win.

“There are a lot of great cars outside looking in are really close right now, but everybody is going to be trying really hard to win. These races are pretty insane and you never know what could happen.”

Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick (Fords) was sixth and seventh, respectively, and three Chevrolet drivers – A.J. Allmendinger, Chris Buescher and Chase Elliott – rounded out the Top 10.

Elliott was competing Thursday with a sprained ankle. In a message Elliott posted on his Twitter account, Elliott said he sprained his ankle on Wednesday while “horsing around” by the pool. Elliott said his X-rays were negative.

The top Toyota driver was Denny Hamlin in 15th.

Cla#DriverManufacturerLapsTimeGapIntervalMph 1 14 united_states Clint Bowyer Ford 20 44.821 200.799 2 10 Aric Almirola Ford 22 44.845 0.024 0.024 200.691 3 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 21 44.876 0.055 0.031 200.553 4 22 Joey Logano Ford 26 44.879 0.058 0.003 200.539 5 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 16 44.881 0.060 0.002 200.530 6 41 Kurt Busch Ford 24 44.883 0.062 0.002 200.521 7 4 united_states Kevin Harvick Ford 28 44.887 0.066 0.004 200.503 8 47 A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 11 44.917 0.096 0.030 200.370 9 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 16 44.919 0.098 0.002 200.361 10 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 17 44.971 0.150 0.052 200.129 11 21 Paul Menard Ford 17 45.043 0.222 0.072 199.809 12 34 united_states Michael McDowell Ford 23 45.128 0.307 0.085 199.433 13 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 15 45.143 0.322 0.015 199.366 14 43 Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 33 45.143 0.322 0.000 199.366 15 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 19 45.152 0.331 0.009 199.327 16 78 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 22 45.152 0.331 0.000 199.327 17 3 united_states Austin Dillon Chevrolet 24 45.157 0.336 0.005 199.305 18 20 Erik Jones Toyota 21 45.160 0.339 0.003 199.291 19 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 25 45.163 0.342 0.003 199.278 20 19 mexico Daniel Suarez Toyota 23 45.174 0.353 0.011 199.230 21 38 David Ragan Ford 16 45.200 0.379 0.026 199.115 22 88 united_states Alex Bowman Chevrolet 36 45.305 0.484 0.105 198.654 23 24 William Byron Chevrolet 23 45.335 0.514 0.030 198.522 24 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 26 45.337 0.516 0.002 198.513 25 31 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 17 45.340 0.519 0.003 198.500 26 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 25 45.372 0.551 0.032 198.360 27 95 united_states Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 7 45.400 0.579 0.028 198.238 28 6 Trevor Bayne Ford 20 45.419 0.598 0.019 198.155 29 62 Brendan Gaughan 8 45.482 0.661 0.063 197.880 30 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 16 45.572 0.751 0.090 197.490 31 32 Matt DiBenedetto Ford 17 46.066 1.245 0.494 195.372 32 72 united_states Corey Lajoie Chevrolet 16 46.682 1.861 0.616 192.794 33 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 16 47.462 2.641 0.780 189.625 34 15 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 11 47.652 2.831 0.190 188.869 35 7 Jeffrey Earnhardt Chevrolet 1 48.319 3.498 0.667 186.262 36 00 Joey Gase Chevrolet 6 48.330 3.509 0.011 186.220 37 23 united_states J.J. Yeley Toyota 14 48.418 3.597 0.088 185.881 38 96 canada D.J. Kennington Toyota 3 48.442 3.621 0.024 185.789 39 92 Timothy Peters Ford 5 48.504 3.683 0.062 185.552 40 51 Ray Black Jr. Chevrolet

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