DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Just like old times at the Daytona 500 as Jimmie Johnson was the fastest driver in Friday’s NASCAR Cup Series practice session.
The driver of the No. 84 Carvana Chevrolet for the Legacy Motor Club ran 34 laps with a best lap of 194.225 miles per hour.
This is the first time Johnson has driven a NASCAR Cup Series car since the seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion retired from full-time competition in 2020.
“It drives like a stock car,” Johnson said. “It feels like a stock car.
“It doesn’t drive like an Indy car, Thank God.”
He spent 2021-’22 in the NTT IndyCar Series.
“It’s my first weekend in this car and the first weekend we’ve all worked together,” Johnson said. “We’re going through quality reps right now. There are a lot of aspects to this that are new.
“I’m very proud of everybody at Legacy Motor Club and proud of everybody on the 42 and 43 car and ECR engines, Carvana coming over here from IndyCar.
“It was so much fun to get out there and mix it up. It was great to draft with Chase Elliott, understand where this car is in the draft and get some quality reps, too.”
Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott was second at 194.195 mph in the No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet. He was followed by Ricky Stenhouse in the No. 47 JTG Daugherty Chevrolet.
Daytona 500 pole winner Alex Bowman, who carries Johnson’s old car number at Hendrick Motorsports, was fourth at 194.132 mph in the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet.
Aric Almirola, winner of the second Bluegreen Vacations Duels qualifying race, rounded out the top five at 194.107 mph.
Kyle Busch’s No. 8 Richard Childress Chevrolet suffered too much damage from the crash in Thursday’s second Bluegreen Vacations Duels to be repaired. The team decided to bring out the backup Chevrolet and install the engine that was in Busch’s car that led 28 out of the first 42 laps in his Duel.
Busch was leading the race before Daniel Suarez ran into the back of his car, sending it into the backstretch wall and out of the race.
Busch ran 15 laps in practice with a best speed of 190.234 mph.
“We wanted to run in a bigger pack, but we also don’t want to tear up any more race cars,” Busch said. “I’m happy with where we are at. I can’t thank the guys at Joe Gibbs Racing enough for getting this car ready.
“It also shows me the level of talent that exists in this garage. I’ve been with Joe Gibbs Racing for a long, long time and we were able to do this with the 8 team. I’m real pleased and real happy with the guys getting us back in the game today and back in practice today.
“We’ll go race them on Sunday and try to get the victory.”
A.J. Allmendinger, Justin Haley, and Riley Herbst did not run laps in Friday’s practice.
There is one more NASCAR Cup Series practice scheduled for Saturday at 10:30 a.m. running through 11:20 a.m. Eastern Time.
That’s the last practice before Sunday’s 65th Daytona 500.