Bubba Wallace leads first Daytona 500 practice

Bubba Wallace led the first Daytona 500 practice session at the Daytona International Speedway on Wednesday, pacing the field at 199.747 mph. The driver of the new No. 23 XI Racing Toyota team turned 20 laps overall at the 2.5-mile oval.

Bubba Wallace leads all-Toyota top 5

P1️⃣ after first practice at @DAYTONA for @BubbaWallace and @23XIRacing.#DAYTONA500 pic.twitter.com/Ml3u6PI3H5

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 10, 2021

Behind Bubba Wallace, four more Toyotas, all from the Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) stables, made up the top 5 on the leaderboard. First among them was Martin Truex Jr. at 199.694 mph, whose contract, it was revealed Wednesday morning, had been extended by JGR to run through to the end of the 2022 season.

More about Bubba Wallace: Daytona 500 Team Preview: 23XI Racing with Bubba Wallace

2020 Daytona 500 winner and 23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin was third-fastest (199.689 mph), ahead of Tuesday night’s Busch Clash winner Kyle Busch (199.627 mph) while Christopher Bell (199.623 mph) rounded out the top 5 as the newest driver of No. 20 car.

Jamie McMurray (199.358 mph) and Corey LaJoie (199.159 mph) led the way for Chevrolet in sixth and seventh respectively in their Spire Motorsports entries.

Fords completed the rest of the top 10, with Michael McDowell’s No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford the quickest of the lot, at 198.957 mph, ahead of Roush Fenway Racing’s Ryan Newman (198.645 mph) and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Cole Custer (198.295 mph).

Anthony Alfredo loses the way

Having run the Xfinity race here last July, it wasn’t the first time that Cup Series rookie Anthony Alfredo was navigating his way out of the garage area at Daytona International Speedway. Nonetheless, he still lost his way momentarily.

Rookie @anthonyalfredo almost went onto the track via the garage exit (it’s one-way traffic). Quickly realized his mistake and backed up to head the right direction. pic.twitter.com/e13X0UdLZY

— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) February 10, 2021

A series of photos captured by Jeff Gluck shows the Ridgefield, CT native attempting to enter the race track via the one-way garage exit, before quickly reversing his No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford to get going in the right direction.

Busch Pole Qualifying is set to get underway later this evening at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, which will set the field for Thursday’s Duels.

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