Preece Leads Daytona 500 Final Practice, Feels More Work To Be Done

Ryan Preece was the fastest of the 18 drivers that turned a lap in the final practice for Sunday's Daytona 500, but the RFK Racing driver feels his repaired No. 60 RFK Racing Ford needs more work completed to compete in the draft.

Ryan Preece (60) had the fastest lap in Saturday's final practice for the Daytona 500, but felt his car couldn't draft as well as he needs it to. | Ricky Martinez | Racing America On SI

DAYTONA BEACH, Florida -- In what amounted to a shake-down for most of the 18 cars that took to the track in Saturday's NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 final practice session, it was the RFK Racing stable that lined up, practiced their drafting, and led the way in the final tune-up for the Great American Race.

Related: 2026 Daytona 500 Starting Lineup

Of the three RFK Racing drivers, Ryan Preece was the fastest of them all with a 46.676-second lap time in the session. Preece, the driver of the No. 60 Ford Mustang Dark Horse, who scored an emotional win in the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, turned his best lap of the session on his 13th trip around the 2.5-mile speedway.

In all, Preece completed 27 laps in the session.

Preece's No. 60 machine suffered damage in the Duels on Thursday, which his team thrashed to repair over the last couple of days. While the car physically looks better, Preece has experienced issues being able to draft up to the other cars in Saturday's session.

If they want to win the Daytona 500, Preece thinks his No. 60 team still has more work to do on their car overnight.

"Well, I know they're going to do everything they possibly can, that's for sure. The Viva Towels/Kroger Ford Mustang it was really fast on Thursday. To have to replace the nose, at least they have some notes, and maybe we can adjust on it," Preece said in a post-practice interview on FS1. "Yeah, it was pretty tough. It's important when you're that fifth-fourth car to keep those guys racked to make speed."

Chris Buescher, the driver of the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford, was second-fastest after turning a 46.684-second lap time. Buescher is competing in a backup car after his primary car was obliterated in a late-race crash in the opening Duel on Thursday night.

And Brad Keselowski completed the top-three sweep for RFK Racing with a best lap time of 46.733 seconds.

Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, AJ Allmendinger, BJ McLeod, and Cody Ware rounded out the top-10 fastest cars in the session.

Logano was the winner of the opening Duel on Thursday night, and while he admits usually when a team feels they have a car somewhat dialed in at Daytona, they don't chance going back out into the draft, Logano and crew chief Paul Wolfe are perfectionists, and can't punt on a chance to improve their car.

"There's not many crew chiefs that actually like seeing their car in the draft the day before the Daytona 500, but I just wanted to keep making it better," Logano explained. "All year long, we have limited amount of practice. If we can get to work on our car a little more, make it a little bit better, or at least try, why wouldn't you?"

McLeod, who initially failed to advance to the Daytona 500 field but was moved into the field when Anthony Alfredo, who finished ahead of him in the Duels was disqualified, gained sponsorship on his No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet following his advancement to the Daytona 500 starting lineup.

Casey Mears, the other "Open" driver to advance from the Duels, was able to conduct his first on-track activity since he suffered massive front-end damage on the final lap of his Duel Qualifier on Thursday evening.

Mears completed a total of four laps behind the wheel of the No. 66 Garage 66 Ford Mustang Dark Horse, and ranked 17th of the 18 that completed a lap in the session.

The Daytona 500 is set for Sunday, February 15, and due to the forecast calling for inclement weather later in the evening, NASCAR has bumped the start time of the race up to 1:30 PM ET. FOX will provide television coverage of the race.

Kyle Busch and Chase Briscoe will lead the field to the green flag on Sunday after securing the top-two starting spots in Daytona 500 qualifying on Wednesday evening.

2026 Daytona 500 Final Practice Results

1. 60-Ryan Preece, 46.676 sec.
2. 17-Chris Buescher, 46.684 sec.
3. 6-Brad Keseloski, 46.733 sec.
4. 12-Ryan Blaney, 46.758 sec.
5. 22-Joey Logano, 46.760 sec.
6. 1-Ross Chastain, 46.791 sec.
7. 9-Chase Elliott, 46.830 sec.
8. 16-AJ Allmendinger, 47.141 sec.
9. 78-BJ McLeod, 47.150 sec.
10. 51-Cody Ware, 47.185 sec.
11. 41-Cole Custer, 47.287 sec.
12. 10-Ty Dillon, 47.297 sec.
13. 24-William Byron, 47.976 sec.
14. 21-Josh Berry, 49.120 sec.
15. 2-Austin Cindric, 49.263 sec.
16. 48-Alex Bowman, 49.326 sec.
17. 66-Casey Mears, 49.403 sec.
18. 84-Jimmie Johnson, 49.524 sec.