Denny Hamlin topped Wednesday’s second practice at Daytona International Speedway, a much calmer affair after the drama of the earlier session.
Hamlin, who won last weekend’s Sprint Unlimited at Daytona, pipped Kasey Kahne to the top of the standings with a time of 45.096 seconds (199.574mph), only 0.001 of a second ahead of the #5 of Kahne. Hamlin’s time was exactly the same as that of AJ Allmendinger, who was also fastest, in the shortened practice.
The session started 15 minutes early in order to make up for lost time from the first session. To find out what happened in the opening session, click here.
Hamlin had also taken the top spot in final practice ahead of the Sprint Unlimited, so it is expected that the driver of the #11 Toyota will be in high spirits heading in to Thursday night’s Budweiser Duels. Due to the qualifying Duel races taking place, there is no Sprint Cup practice on Thursday.
Michael Waltrip, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Greg Biffle rounded out the top five. The highest of the drivers caught up in the huge wreck in Wednesday’s first practice was Matt Kenseth, who turned in a time of 45.363, good enough for ninth fastest, just ahead of Daytona 500 pole-sitter, Austin Dillon.
