Defending Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson led the first Sprint Cup practice session for next Sunday's
Daytona 500 as the 54 teams hoping to make the 43 starting line-up for the championship season opener took to the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway for the first time.
Cool, crisp conditions greeted the Cup teams on Saturday morning for the first of two practice sessions set for the day. Everybody focused on working on the optimum-qualifying set-up with nobody attempting to try some practice drafting just yet.
Johnson set a best time of 48.313-seconds (186.285mph) on his final flying lap to edge out the first of 19 drivers who will be battling to secure their place in the 43-car starting line-up in Sunday's Bud Pole qualifying session and Thursday's Gatorade Duel qualifying races, GEM's Patrick Carpentier.
With 54 teams bidding for 43 places on the grid Carpentier, who set a best time of 48.381-seconds has to try and make sure that he is either one of the three fastest non top 35 drivers in Bud Pole qualifying OR that he finishes among the top two non-top 35 drivers in his particular qualifying race on Thursday.
Behind Carpentier, Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon set third and fourth fastest times before Jacques Villeneuve, another non-guaranteed driver, rounded out the top five in his Bill Davis Racing Toyota.
New Yates Racing recruit Travis Kvapil, tasked with replacing Ricky Rudd, was the best placed Ford driver with sixth fastest time while the top ten was rounded out by Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr and two more non guaranteed drivers in the form of MWR teammates David Reutimann and Dale Jarrett.
Juan Montoya was solidly placed in 14th spot on the timesheets with Dario Franchitti a respectable 24th. Defending Daytona 500 champion Kevin Harvick was only 29th with Sam Hornish Jr 31st and AJ Allmendinger 45th.
![Tony Stewart - Home Depot Chevrolet [pic credit: image.net]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/300248.jpg)
