Allmendinger tops first Wednesday practice at Daytona

AJ Allmendinger was fastest in today’s first Sprint Cup practice session, which was cut short due to repairs that needed to be made to the catchfence — which was reinforced in the wake of last season's Nationwide Series crash involving Kyle Larson's car. A Daytona spokesman said the fence performed the way it was designed, suffering "some minimal damage" along the frontstretch. One cable and some of the mesh fencing had to be repaired before a second Sprint Cup practice, a session that began at 6:15 p.m Eastern time.

The day's first crash forced both Vickers and Whitt to backups. A cowl flap from one of the cars involved in that incident stuck in the front end of Jeff Gordon's car, in the crease between the hood and the front grille. But the No. 24 team was able to repair the damage and did not move to a backup.

It was a costly afternoon for drivers like Whitt, Truex and Blaney who still need to race their way into the Daytona 500 through Thursday night's qualifying races. Blaney, driving a car for Humphrey-Smith Racing, said he didn't have a backup car immediately available.

"We were coming to the tri-oval behind Ryan Truex, and he checked up, and by the time I got checked up, it was on and cars were all over the place," Blaney said. "Going down the back straightway right before that, I told myself, 'I don't need to be out here right now. We got no backup car.' But I was in the outer lane and there was no bailing, so it got us."

No wonder some teams decided against drafting altogether. "That's the reason you see the 3, 48, and the 88 just sitting," Childress said, referring to the cars of Austin Dillon, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. "Tonight's when you want to go, when the weather's like it's going to be when you're racing anyway.''

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