William Byron paces Friday’s NASCAR Cup practice at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Defending Daytona 500 winner William Byron posted the fastest lap in Friday’s Cup practice at Daytona International Speedway.

Byron led the way with a lap of 194.923 mph in a draft.

He was followed by Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott (194.763 mph), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (194.679), Kyle Busch (194.393) and Austin Dillon (194.032). All are in Chevrolets.

The top Ford was Zane Smith, who was sixth quick with a. lap of 193.665 mph. John Hunter Nemechek was the fastest Toyota at 14th on the speed chart with a lap of 192.361 mph.

Thirty of the 41 cars in the Daytona 500 ran at least a lap in practice.

Todd Gilliland, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric all ran a session-high 31 laps.

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Friday’s practice was shortened due to mist.

Cup teams will have a final practice session from 3:05 – 3:55 p.m. ET Saturday.

NASCAR previously announced that it had moved up the start of Sunday’s Daytona 500 because of potential rain in the afternoon. The green flag is scheduled to be waved at 2 p.m. ET Sunday.