No. 3 Car Returns To Top Of Scoring Pylon At Daytona 500 Practice

Austin Dillon led the way in the second Daytona 500 practice of the week, driving the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Chevrolet teams swept the top-10 spots in the session.

Austin Dillon was the fastest driver in the second practice session for Sunday's Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. | Ricky Martinez | Racing America On SI

DAYTONA BEACH, Florida -- The iconic Richard Childress Racing No. 3 Chevrolet returned to a familiar spot on Friday afternoon, the top of the scoring pylon at Daytona International Speedway. Austin Dillon was the fastest driver in an incident-free NASCAR Cup Series practice session for Sunday's Daytona 500.

While pacing a practice session at Daytona is a long way away from hoisting the Harley J. Earl trophy, Dillon has done that before, too, as he won the Daytona 500 in 2018. Add in the fact that his teammate, Kyle Busch, scored the pole position for the Great American Race, and you can conclude that RCR has brought quite a bit of speed to Daytona International Speedway.

"We're just proud of the effort that we've made in the off-season," Dillon explained. "I think ECR horsepower is, again, showing how dominant they are. We get to these speedways and they always seem to give us a shot, and job well done to Chevrolet with the new Camaro. We feel like we can take the fight on offense more.

"It's been a struggle, I feel like, the last couple of years on speedways for us, and this time around, you feel like you can push and compete up there, and it's a lot more fun. I know that."

Alex Bowman, driving the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, clocked in second-fastest in the session, as he was 0.041 seconds off the best lap time set by Dillon, and Justin Allgaier was third-fastest in the JR Motorsports Chevrolet.

Chase Elliott, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rounded out the top-five fastest drivers in the session.

In all, it was a clean sweep of the top-10 fastest laps in the session for Chevrolet teams as Shane van Gisbergen, William Byron, Ross Chastain, Kyle Larson, and Connor Zilisch ranked in positions six through 10.

Byron, who went to a backup car, which was shipped overnight from the Hendrick Motorsports shop in Concord, NC, to Daytona, due to a crash in Thursday's America 250 Florida Duels, doesn't appear to have any issues with his backup car as he ranked firmly inside the top-10 lap times, and he also was able to click off 29 laps in the session.

The driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet is going for his third consecutive Daytona 500 win, which would make him the first driver to ever accomplish the feat if he can pull it off.

Chastain also shook down his backup car following a crash in Thursday's Duels. Chastain was able to get 19 laps in during the session, where he ranked eighth-fastest.

After Thursday's Duels, the narrative being spread was that pushes this year in the lead up to the Daytona 500 have been wilder than any year with the Next Gen car, which has led many, Joey Logano included, to believe that Sunday's race could be a wreckfest. Dillon doesn't feel like the shoves have been any different than years past at Daytona.

"I got pushed quite a bit in the duel," Dillon said, "I've had cars that have accepted pushes better than others in the past, but I didn't feel much different personally than what we've been pushed around in the Next-Gen car."

Dillon continued, "Usually sometimes you get pushed too hard, I get pushed to the left a little bit more than I'd like. Sometimes it'll straighten you back out. But I think it's just the rate at which you get pushed. I think it's really important to have the right people pushing you because some people just don't come off the allow pedal sometimes and get you crossed up and drive through you."

You had to scan your eyes down to the 11th position on the scoring pylon to find a driver of a non-Chevrolet. Josh Berry had the distinction of being the best of that group as he ranked 11th-fastest in his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford.

Berry hopes that his No. 21 car showing the best speed of the Ford camp will allow other Ford teams to choose him to latch onto in Sunday's race.

"I'd say it's definitely not a bad thing to show that you have some speed," Berry said in his post-practice press conference. "And we were in front I think when we ran that lap, they said."

While it only recorded the 11th-fastest lap of the session, Berry has a lot of confidence in his car, overall at this juncture in the race weekend.

"I feel good about my car, honestly, I feel really good about my car," Berry stated. "Felt good about it last night. Hopefully, it's time for a good race on Sunday."

Christopher Bell led the way for the Toyota contingent with the 21st-fastest lap time of the session. While Bell knows that he raced fine in the Duels, the sluggish pace of the Toyotas in the draft on Friday is certainly a concern heading into the Great American Race.

"Yeah, I raced fine in the Duels last night, but certainly it was a little alarming that I was in good aero positions to get good drafts and make big hay, and we didn't do it," Bell said. "So I don't know."

Like Byron and Chastain, two other drivers had to go to backup cars following crashes in Thursday's Duel qualifiers.

Daniel Suarez (18th), and Chris Buescher (24th) are the other two drivers driving backup cars for the remainder of the weekend.

Daytona 500 Practice 2 Results

1. 3-Austin Dillon, 46.006 sec.
2. 48-Alex Bowman, 46.047 sec.
3. 40-Justin Allgaier, 46.137 sec.
4. 9-Chase Elliott, 46.149 sec.
5. 47-Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 46.160 sec.
6. 97-Shane van Gisbergen, 46.239 sec.
7. 24-William Byron, 46.242 sec.
8. 1-Ross Chastain, 46.249 sec.
9. 5-Kyle Larson, 46.250 sec.
10. 88-Connor Zilisch, 46.257 sec.
11. 21-Josh Berry, 46.307 sec.
12. 10-Ty Dillon, 46.336 sec.
13. 38-Zane Smith, 46.343 sec.
14. 34-Todd Gilliland, 46.355 sec.
15. 6-Brad Keselowski, 46.357 sec.
16. 12-Ryan Blaney, 46.360 sec.
17. 22-Joey Logano, 46.375 sec.
18. 7-Daniel Suarez, 46.389 sec.
19. 41-Cole Custer, 46.418 sec.
20. 2-Austin Cindric, 46.453 sec.
21. 20-Christopher Bell, 46.495 sec.
22. 42-John Hunter Nemechek, 46.523 sec.
23. 8-Kyle Busch, 46.540 sec.
24. 17-Chris Buescher, 46.640 sec.
25. 4-Noah Gragson, 46.645 sec.
26. 67-Corey Heim, 46.910 sec.
27. 19-Chase Briscoe, 46.931 sec.
28. 11-Denny Hamlin, 46.943 sec.
29. 35-Riley Herbst, 47.010 sec.
30. 54-Ty Gibbs, 47.013 sec.
31. 45-Tyler Reddick, 47.021 sec.
32. 23-Bubba Wallace, 47.070 sec.
33. 71-Michael McDowell, 47.656 sec.
34. 77-Carson Hocevar, 48.088 sec.
35. 84-Jimmie Johnson, 48.950 sec.
36. 43-Erik Jones, 49.317 sec.
37. 78-BJ McLeod, 49.566 sec.