DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Only 19 cars took to the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway for Saturday morning’s final practice session prior Sunday’s 64th Daytona 500.
Rookie driver Harrison Burton was the fastest of the 19 drivers with a best speed of 188.355 miles per hour in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford.
Burton was involved in the last lap incident with Joey Logano exiting turn two on the final lap of Thursday night’s second Bluegreen Vacations Duel Daytona 500 qualifying race.
RESULTS: Final Daytona 500 Practice
“I hit the 22 (Logano) really hard and had to pretty much replace the whole front end of the race car,” Burton explained. “It took the whole day yesterday to do it. We took our time to get it right.
“We’ve got good speed. Handling is really good. It’s hard to tell until you get out there. The real big pack is different than a pack of four. I’m trying to relay as much information as we can. It’s pretty much been a smooth week overall except for that one incident.
“We got that covered up and we’re right back to where we were.”
Ironically, Logano also got back to speed as the Team Penske driver was second quick at 188.324 mph in the No. 22 Ford, a backup car after his primary car was involved in the crash on Thursday night.
Team Penske’ driver Austin Cindric was third at 188.265 mph in the No. 2 Ford followed by Kevin Harvick’s No. 4 Ford at 188.257 mph. Chase Briscoe rounded out the top five in another Ford at 188.229 mph.
The top eight cars were Fords. Daniel Hemric had the fastest Chevrolet, ninth at 185.770 mph.
Erik Jones was 19th out of the 19 cars that hit the track. His best lap was 179.233 mph.
Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney had the best 10-consecutive lap average at 186.940 mph in the No. 12 Ford. Teammate Cindric was next at 186.939 mph, Burton third at 186.936 mph and Logano’s 186.932 mph.
Team Penske and Stewart-Haas Racing had all of its cars in the session. None of the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas participated in practice. Team Hendrick drivers either ran limited laps or entered the pits at pit road speed. Kyle Larson, the Daytona 500 pole winner, did not participate in Saturday’s practice.
“This year has been different because there is a lot less practice time and we have utilized a lot of time this week,” Harvick explained. “We’ll see where it goes from there.
“There is more to learn when they drop the green flag with all the cars on the race track. It will be more trial by fire once we start the race.”
A garage source told SPEED SPORT the issue with the Team Penske wheels was the team cleaned the inside of the wheel, similar to what they do with its IndyCar team. Because the wheels were clean both outside and inside, NASCAR officials wanted to further inspect the wheel back at the R&D Center in Concord, N.C.