Final practice for Sunday's Daytona 500 is in the books and Reed Sorenson was able to put his No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Dodge atop the leaderboard. The Peachtree City, Georgia-native posted a fast lap of 191.575 mph to take the top-spot, but is more confident with how the car handled in the draft.

Sorenson has his work cut out for him during Sunday's Daytona 500. After helping ensure teammate Reed Sorenson made the race, the driver of the No. 43 McDonald's Dodge could only salvage a 21st-place finish, putting him in the back of the pack (34th) for Sunday's race.

"We changed some stuff yesterday and took away some handling, basically just got it back to handling good and did a few things for speed," Sorenson explained after climbing from his car Saturday. "That's probably the best we can get our car, it's the best we've got. The single laps speed doesn't really mean anything, that really just catching the right lap at the right time to get a fast lap. It feels like it sucks up a little better than it did in th 150s. I think it's handling a little bit better, so we should be good."

The practice session was halted early in the going for an incident collecting Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart. A right rear tire let go on Newman's No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet, destroying the right rear quarter panel of the car and sending him sideways in Turn 2. Tucked up behind him in the draft, Stewart could do little as Newman spun in front of him and drove into the door of his team car. Both cars were forced to pull out a back-up.

Not the first tire issue we have seen this week, a number of drivers expressed their concern after Thursday's Gatorade Duel 150s and Friday's lone practice session. Sorenson told HardcoreRaceFans.com he was a little concerned with the tire issues that have come up over the last few days heading into Sunday's race.

"We've had a few blow outs already and we've seen some spots on tires already. I think its a little bit of a concern for everybody. If it doesn't rain the track should rubber up some, the trucks ran last night and the Nationwide cars run today, so we'll see if the rubber stays on the track. We'll see. It seems like the right sides are blowing off or blowing up or something, I don't know what's wrong with them. We haven't had a huge issue yet, but we have seen some spots on our tires."

Piloting the famous No. 43 for Richard Petty Motorsports, Sorenson was able to put the famous number back were it belongs during the final practice session of the weekend. Looking forward to Sunday's race, Sorenson pointed out it would be special to put the No. 43 back in victory lane at Daytona.

"It'd be a good place to start," Sorenson told HardcoreRaceFans.com. "The 43 has a lot of wins here and we'd like to win our first race here.  It'd be pretty cool, it would be a good start to the season."