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By Staff Report
NASCAR.com
James Gilbert | Getty Images
Published: February 12, 2025
Denny Hamlin paced the NASCAR Cup Series field during Wednesday’s opening practice session at Daytona International Speedway, turning a lap of 187.480 mph in his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. It’s the first of three scheduled practice sessions for Sunday’s 67th running of the Daytona 500.
Bubba Wallace (186.915), Ty Gibbs (186.370), Chandler Smith (186.177) and John Hunter Nemechek (186.100) completed the top five. Riley Herbst, Daniel Suárez, Noah Gragson, Erik Jones and Kyle Busch completed the top 10.
Notables included Helio Castroneves as the 12th quickest, Kyle Larson 14th, Shane van Gisbergen 17th and Martin Truex Jr. 31st.
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For the most part, drivers participated in single-car runs to diagnose any mechanical issues for qualifying Wednesday night (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing teammates Brad Keselowski and Ryan Preece both had smoke coming from the right front, while Jones had transmission problems trying to leave the garage for a run.
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Before qualifying, drivers will participate in Daytona 500 Media Day at 12:30 p.m. ET.
