Daytona 500: Hendrick rookie Byron tops practice for NASCAR opener – NASCAR

Rookie William Byron posted the fastest lap across Saturday’s three NASCAR Cup practice sessions ahead of the Daytona 500, utilising a large pack of cars drafting to set his time.

One of Hendrick Motorsports’ new recruits for 2018, reigning Xfinity Series champion Byron set the quickest time of the day in the third session despite multiple dramas on Saturday.

Byron caused a brief red flag when a broken seal on his #24 Chevrolet leaked fluid onto the track in second practice.

He then suffered two wayward moments late in third practice, running off-line and close to Denny Hamlin before later being run into the path of Hamlin again with a tap from Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Between those two moments, the 20-year-old set the day’s fastest time of 44.625s at an average speed of 201.681mph.

Stenhouse, who won three of NASCAR’s four ‘plate’ races at superspeedways last season, was second fastest overall, leading a Ford 2-3 with Joey Logano behind.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s quartet of Toyotas had locked out the top four places in second practice but, with times falling in the late afternoon runs, only Hamlin held onto a top four spot, going fourth quickest as the last car within a tenth of a second from Byron.

Despite Toyota’s dominance of the 2017 Cup season, and Chevrolet introducing a new car for 2018, Ford took six of the top 10 places.

David Ragan, Paul Menard and Trevor Bayne all took advantage of the late drafting battle to break the 45-second barrier.

Michael McDowell was 10th in the second session in his Front Row Motorsports Ford.

Though Joe Gibbs’ dominance had been broken by the end of the day, it was still the only team with three of its cars in the top 10.

Daniel Suarez went ninth quickest, while Kyle Busch’s fastest time from second practice was enough to put him 10th on aggregate.

Saturday’s morning opening practice session was only available to the 17 cars that will contest Sunday’s 75-lap ‘Clash’ race.

Team Penske dominated that session, going first, second and fourth fastest with Ryan Blaney, Logano and Brad Keselowski respectively.

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