Before the clouds opened up and cancelled the second Daytona 500 practice session for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Dale Earnhardt Jr. topped the charts in the first, rain shortened practice.

With a lap time of 47.700, over a second slower than the fastest time in Bud Shooutout practice yesterday, at 188.679 mph, Earnhardt took the top spot by 0.016 seconds over his teammate Mark Martin.

Jeff Gordon ended the session in third giving Hendrick Motorsports the top three spots. The team’s fourth driver, 4-time champion Jimmie Johnson, ended up 12th.

Veteran driver Bill Elliott was 4th at the end of the session followed by Robby Gordon in 5th.

Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, David Reutimann, Kyle Busch and Clint Bowyer rounded out the top-10.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers will attempt to qualify for next Sunday’s Daytona 500 tomorrow afternoon. The qualifying session will broadcast on FOX at 1pm ET.

SPRINT CUP PRACTICE #1 RESULTS

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