Travel Day; Practice Resumes
February 11th, 2009 by 
glm
After answering my alarm clock far too many hours before sunrise, hitting the McDonalds at Walnut St. & the Bypass as it opened at 5 a.m. and sitting on the tarmac of Indianapolis International Airport for an extra one hour and 17 minutes while waiting for Atlanta’s airport to again accept arrivals — my trip to Daytona International Speedway is nearing completion.
Biggest lesson of the day, so far? Always get an extra row seat on any airplane you fly on. The leg room is stupendous.
As for the NASCAR world, I’ll be on-location for the first time Thursday morning prior to the Gatorade Duels. The Duels are two 150-mile qualifying races that will set the official starting order of Sunday’s race. If you’re looking to catch them in Bloomington, they’ll be on SPEED Channel starting at 2:00 p.m. Thursday.
Today at Daytona, the weather looks a whole lot better and whole lot less windy than the conditions back in the Hoosier state. For the first time since Sunday’s time trials, the Sprint Cup teams hit the track for some practice in full race mode. The first session, according to reports from Jayski, say Richard Petty Motorsports’ Kasey Kahne lead the way with a lap of 190.994 mph. Kurt Busch, Sam Hornish Jr., Casey Mears and Michael Waltrip rounded out the Top-5.
18-year-old Sprint Cup rookie Joey Logano — he’s trying to become the youngest driver to ever start NASCAR’s biggest event — got a hold of the wall with the right side of his car while Stewart-Haas Racing’s and Indiana native Ryan Newman appeared to have lost an engine.
The second practice of the day started at 2:00 p.m. and was scheduled for 50 minutes. Both practices were the first chances drivers had to test out their cars in drafting mode, leading to massive packs of cars that have the potential for a major crash.
