The NASCAR Nationwide Series started the day off at Darlington Raceway with the one and only practice bright and early at 8:30 am ET. Carl Edwards topped the speed charts with a 28.302 second lap at 173.755 mph. He was followed by Jason Leffler, Kasey Kahne, Brad Keselowski and David Gilliland.

The Series qualified for the evening’s Royal Purple 200 in the mid-afternoon with Denny Hamlin beating out Kyle Busch for the top starting position. The Joe Gibbs Racing teammates ran 27.936 second and 27.980 second lap times, respectively. The duo was just ahead of Keselowski, Jamie McMurray and Edwards.

Two Sprint Cup Series practices were sandwiched between the two Nationwide events with A.J. Allmendinger pacing the first session while McMurray was fastest in the second. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was the first to be bitten by the Lady In Black and now has one wrecked race car and a back-up car with damage as well.

Dave Blaney was second fastest in the initial practice followed by Mike Bliss, Michael McDowell and Hamlin who was 2nd fastest in the final session followed by Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman and Juan Pablo Montoya.

The Cup cars hit the track once more for their qualifying run after the Nationwide qualifying wrapped up. McMurray once again showed his strength this year by taking top qualifying honors with a 27.264 second lap at 180.370 mph. Jeff Gordon, who has gone to Victory Lane at Darlington 7 times, will start on the outside pole.

The rest of the top-5 is made up by Brian Vickers, David Reutimann and Mark Martin.

The Nationwide Series Royal Purple 200 is running Friday with the Cup Series Showtime Southern 500 beginning at 7:30pm ET. The race will be broadcast on FOX.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES PRACTICE 1 RESULTS

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES PRACTICE 2 RESULTS

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES QUALIFYING RESULTS

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