Joey Logano Fastest In Daytona 500 Qualifying Practice

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Joey Logano topped the speed chart in Daytona 500 qualifying practice on Saturday with a lap of 46.604 seconds at 193.116 mph.

Logano, the driver of the Team Penske No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion has been fast all weekend in Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona practice, and on Saturday at Daytona International Speedway, he proved that he also has a fast car for the Daytona 500. During the practice session, Logano ran 22 laps with his fastest being his 16^th lap. Logano will be the 42^nd driver to roll off pit road on Sunday during Daytona 500 qualifying.

“So far it’s been a couple good practices for Penske and Ford, and now we’ll see how the races go,” Logano said. “Practice is really just practice. There’s really nothing to it there. We’ll just have to keep tuning it in to make sure we’re good in the races.”

Aric Almirola in the No. 43 Smithfield Foods Ford Fusion was second fastest in practice. Almirola ran a lap of 46.619 seconds at 193.054 mph, just 0.015 seconds slower than Logano. This season, Richard Petty Motorsports has downsized to just a single-car team, but so far, the team has been fast.

“It’s going really smoothly,” Almirola said. “This is probably the smoothest qualifying practice for the Daytona 500 that I’ve ever had. The car has good speed in it and every little tweak and adjustment that the guys on this Smithfield team do seems to pick us up – like literally every time we go on the race track we seem to get a little bit better. I’m really proud of Drew Blickensderfer and all the guys at Richard Petty Motorsports and everybody on this Smithfield team. They’ve got our Ford Fusion running really good.”

Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top-five. Completing the top-10 in Saturday’s practice was Daniel Suarez, Kasey Kahne, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Trevor Bayne and Clint Bowyer.

Qualifying for the Daytona 500 will broadcast live on FOX at 3:10 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. The qualifying efforts will set the front row for the Daytona 500 and the starting lineup for the two Can-Am Duel races.

Photo Credit: Hunter Thomas/TheFourthTurn.com