William Byron Paces Rain-Shortened Friday Daytona 500 Practice
William Byron has a chance to accomplish back-to-back wins in the Daytona 500 this weekend, something that has only been accomplished four times in the history of The Great American Race. As we continue to march toward Sunday's race, Byron continues to show he has a formidible and capable No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet underneath him.
In Friday's Daytona 500 practice session, which was shortened due to rain, Byron turned the fastest lap. Byron quick lap time was a 46.172 second (194.923 mph) circuit around the 2.5-mile speedway. Byron was able to out-pace his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott by 0.038 seconds.
Related: NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 Practice 2 Results
While his car is fast, Byron had some mechanical gremlins that cropped up on his car in Thursday night's Duel Qualifier, an event where he finished second to Bubba Wallace. Byron says he feels confident the issues have been rectified after Friday's practice.
"Yeah, we didn't have any issues. It was just a weird sort of fuel pressure situation going on. I think [Jimmie Johnson] had the same thing, so, just trying to figure that out, and I feel like we got it resolved," Byron said. "Feel good about that. We just ran some single laps by ourselves for the last eight or 10 laps, and had no issues or signs of it. Hopefully, fingers crossed that it doesn't show up on Sunday."
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., the 2023 Daytona 500 champion, ws third-fastest in the session with a 46.230 second lap time in his No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevroletm and he was followed by Richard Childress Racing teammates Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon, who slotted in fourth and fifth on the scoring pylon.
Busch is making his 20th start in the Daytona 500 on Sunday, and the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion is still seeking his first victory in the sport's biggest race.
Zane Smith was the fastest driver from the Ford Performance group as he clocked in sixth-fastest in the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford Mustang Dark Horse.
Smith's teammate Todd Gilliland was seventh-fastest in the session, and he was followed by a trio of NASCAR Cup Series champions Joey Logano, Kyle Larson, and Ryan Blaney.
The fastest Toyota GAZOO Racing entry was John Hunter Nemechek, who drives the No. 42 machine for LEGACY MOTOR CLUB. Nemechek was 14th-fastest, and he had his teammate Erik Jones slotted in directly behind him on the speed charts in 15th.
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Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.