Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. fastest in first Daytona 500 practice

57th Annual Daytona 500 - Practice

DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 14: Ricky Stenhouse Jr., driver of the #17 Fastenal Ford, practices for the 57th Annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 14, 2015 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Robert Laberge/NASCAR via Getty Images)

NASCAR via Getty Images

The Ford teams of Roush Fenway Racing and Richard Petty Motorsports took the top four positions in Saturday morning’s opening practice for the 57th Daytona 500.

Roush driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. led the session with a lap of 202.643 mph in the No. 17 Fastenal Ford. Petty newcomer Sam Hornish Jr. was next at 202.193 mph.

Former Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne was third for Roush with the same speed as Hornish. Fourth belonged to Petty’s Aric Almirola (201.979), who won at Daytona in the Coke Zero 400 last July.

The third Roush driver, veteran Greg Biffle, was sixth (201.762) just behind the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of defending 500 champion Dale Earnhardt Jr. (201.767).

With group qualifying for the 500 coming up tomorrow afternoon, top speeds took a noticeable jump as teams ran in line with multiple cars in addition to doing single-car runs by themselves.

Martin Truex Jr., driving the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet, was the only entry that did not turn a lap in the first practice.

A second 500 practice will take place from 1:30-3:25 p.m. ET later today. Here’s the speed chart from Practice 1:

Daytona 500 Practice 1
Daytona International Speedway

1. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 202.643 mph ... 19 laps run
2. Sam Hornish Jr., 202.193 ... 20 laps
3. Trevor Bayne, 202.193 ... 11 laps
4. Aric Almirola, 201.979 ... 18 laps
5. Dale Earnhardt Jr., 201.767 ... 29 laps
6. Greg Biffle, 201.762 ... 11 laps
7. Denny Hamlin, 201.441 ... 26 laps
8. David Gilliland, 200.642 ... 15 laps
9. Danica Patrick, 200.356 ... 31 laps
10. Carl Edwards, 200.312 ... 24 laps
11. Kasey Kahne, 199.982 ... 30 laps
12. Clint Bowyer, 199.663 ... 18 laps (had best 10-consecutive lap average; 196.804, Laps 2-11)
13. Kevin Harvick, 199.146 ... 28 laps
14. Justin Allgaier, 199.102 ... 40 laps
15. Tony Stewart, 199.093 ... 22 laps
16. Kurt Busch, 199.089 ... 35 laps
17. Jamie McMurray, 199.031 ... 24 laps
18. Michael Annett, 198.913 ... 38 laps
19. Kyle Busch, 198.855 ... 29 laps
20. Kyle Larson, 198.816 ... 39 laps
21. Matt Kenseth, 198.570 ... 24 laps
22. Austin Dillon, 198.509 ... 26 laps
23. Paul Menard, 198.395 ... 10 laps
24. Brian Scott, 198.382 ... 10 laps
25. Ty Dillon, 198.330 ... 5 laps
26. Ryan Newman, 198.277 ... 5 laps
27. David Ragan, 198.220 ... 16 laps
28. Michael McDowell, 198.129 ... 22 laps
29. Ryan Blaney, 197.650 ... 17 laps
30. Casey Mears, 197.546 ... 17 laps
31. Joey Logano, 197.278 ... 18 laps
32. Brad Keselowski, 197.256 ... 25 laps
33. Justin Marks, 197.204 ... 31 laps
34. Landon Cassill, 196.846 ... 17 laps
35. Alex Bowman, 196.674 ... 12 laps
36. Cole Whitt, 196.524 ... 17 laps
37. A.J. Allmendinger, 195.997 ... 16 laps
38. Mike Wallace, 195.874 ... 5 laps
39. Jimmie Johnson, 194.839 ... 28 laps
40. Jeff Gordon, 194.675 ... 24 laps
41. Jeb Burton, 194.321 ... 20 laps
42. Johnny Sauter, 194.263 ... 7 laps
43. Michael Waltrip, 193.403 ... 19 laps
44. J.J. Yeley, 191.738 ... 13 laps
45. Bobby Labonte, 191.026 ... 12 laps
46. Josh Wise, 189.390 ... 3 laps
47. Ron Hornaday Jr. 189.290 ... 11 laps
48. Reed Sorenson, 186.831 ... 13 laps

Follow @estradawriting