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Byron leads rain-shortened Friday Daytona 500 practice
William Byron paced a weather-shortened Daytona 500 practice session Friday evening with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott in tow.
Byron, the defending Daytona 500 champion, was fastest with a lap of 194.923mph (46.172s). Elliott clocked in second fastest at 194.763mph.
Cup Series teams were on track for about 31 minutes before rain raised the red flag. The session, which was scheduled to last 50 minutes, did not restart. It was the only session on Friday’s schedule.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was third fastest at 194.679mph, Kyle Busch was fourth at 194.393mph and Austin Dillon completed the top five at 194.032mph.
Zane Smith was sixth and led the way for the Ford camp. He clocked in at 193.665mph.
Todd Gilliland was seventh fastest at 193.395mph, Joey Logano ran eighth at 193.278 mph; Kyle Larson, ninth at 193.245mph and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top 10 at 193.237mph.
The fastest Toyota driver was John Hunter Nemechek in 14th. Erik Jones, Nemechek’s teammate at Legacy Motor Club, was 15th.
Only 30 drivers clocked in a lap during practice.
Kaulig Racing chose not to run with its two drivers. Cody Ware, Shane van Gisbergen, Helio Castroneves, and Daniel Suarez also sat idle. After incidents in Thursday night's duel races, those teams are either repairing primary cars or preparing backups.
As is the case during Speedweeks, there were different agendas in practice -- Toyota drivers drafted in small packs while Ford and Chevrolet drivers made an 11-car draft early in the session.
NEXT: Final Cup Series practice for the Daytona 500 at 3:05 p.m. ET Saturday.
Kelly Crandall
Kelly has been on the NASCAR beat full-time since 2013, and joined RACER as chief NASCAR writer in 2017. Her work has also appeared in NASCAR.com, the NASCAR Illustrated magazine, and NBC Sports. A corporate communications graduate from Central Penn College, Crandall is a two-time George Cunningham Writer of the Year recipient from the National Motorsports Press Association.
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