Draft Raises Lap Speeds as Keselowski Tops Final Practice

(DAYTONA BEACH, FL – FEB 18, 2023 – RIS) Brad Keselowski topped the chart after the end of the final practice for the 65th Daytona 500, in a session that saw mostly Fords on track. The Ford contingent worked on drafting while the sole Toyota, Tyler Reddick’s, took to the track only for pit entry tests and never actually tripped the timers.

Keselowski’s best lap time, 47.071 sec at 191.201 mph, was over three seconds quicker than his qualifying lap of 50.091 sec at 179.673 mph. Just a thousandth of a second back was reigning Cup champion Joey Logano, with Ryan Blaney, Ryan Preece, Harrison Burton and Chase Briscoe heading an all-Ford top six. The Ford sextet’s best lap times were separated by only 0.034 second, an indication of the effect of drafting in a pack.

AJ Allmendinger headed a Chevy trio with Justin Haley and Noah Gragson with the Chevy teams also working on drafting.

Final Practice: DAYTONA 500

Pos, Driver, Car, Time, Speed, On Lap, # Laps, -Fastest, -Next
1)          Brad Keselowski, No. 6 Nexlizet Ford, 47.071 sec, 191.201 mph, 9, 14, ---.---, ---.---
2)          Joey Logano, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, 47.072, 191.196, 9, 26, -0.001, -0.001
3)          Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Menards/Blue DEF/PEAK Ford, 47.076, 191.180, 4, 17, -0.005, -0.004
4)          Ryan Preece, No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford, 47.076, 191.180, 9, 16, -0.005, -0.000
5)          Harrison Burton, No. 21 Motorcraft/DEX Imaging Ford, 47.077, 191.176, 4, 27, -0.006, -0.001
6)          Chase Briscoe, No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford, 47.105, 191.063, 9, 28, -0.034, -0.028
7)          AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Nutrien Ag Solutions Chevrolet, 47.167, 190.811, 4, 25, -0.096, -0.062
8)          Justin Haley, No. 31 Cirkul Chevrolet, 47.174, 190.783, 4, 25, -0.103, -0.007
9)          Noah Gragson #, No. 42 Wendy's Chevrolet, 47.353, 190.062, 4, 12, -0.282, -0.179
10)       Riley Herbst(i), No. 15 SunnyD Ford, 47.358, 190.042, 9, 23, -0.287, -0.005
11)       Zane Smith(i), No. *36 Wellcare Ford, 47.367, 190.006, 8, 22, -0.296, -0.009
12)       Corey LaJoie, No. 7 Celsius Chevrolet, 48.062, 187.258, 10, 10, -0.991, -0.695
13)       Conor Daly(i), No. *50 BitNile.com Chevrolet, 48.817, 184.362, 11, 19, -1.746, -0.755
14)       Austin Cindric, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford, 49.922, 180.281, 7, 12, -2.851, -1.105
15)       Jimmie Johnson, No. *84 Carvana Chevrolet, 50.417, 178.511, 1, 3, -3.346, -0.495
16)       Todd Gilliland, No. 38 gener8tor Skills Ford, 50.539, 178.080, 2, 3, -3.468, -0.122
17)       Tyler Reddick, No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota, -0.000, 0.000, 0, 0, -0.000, -0.000

Best 10 Consecutive Lap Average
Pos, Driver, Car, From Lap, To Lap, Avg Speed
1)          Ryan Preece, No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford, 2, 11, 189.316 mph
2)          Chase Briscoe, No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford, 2, 11, 189.220
3)          Harrison Burton, No. 21 Motorcraft/DEX Imaging Ford, 2, 11, 189.110
4)          Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Menards/Blue DEF/PEAK Ford, 2, 11, 189.069
5)          AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Nutrien Ag Solutions Chevrolet, 2, 11, 189.041
6)          Brad Keselowski, No. 6 Nexlizet Ford, 1, 10, 188.994
7)          Justin Haley, No. 31 Cirkul Chevrolet, 2, 11, 188.950
8)          Joey Logano, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, 2, 11, 188.915
9)          Zane Smith(i)*, No. *36 Wellcare Ford, 5, 14, 188.886
10)       Riley Herbst(i), No. 15 SunnyD Ford, 4, 13, 186.232
11)       Corey LaJoie, No. 7 Celsius Chevrolet, 1, 10, 177.489* 
Car must run 10 consecutive laps.
* Required to qualify on time, (i) Ineligible for driver points in this series