Saturday morning at the
Daytona International Speedway provided the Sprint Cup teams with one last chance to get set for Sunday's 50th running of the Daytona 500 in the traditional final Happy Hour session.
Roush-Fenway Racing's Carl Edwards ended the session with the fastest speed, having got his #99 Office Depot Ford up to 191.034mph in drafting practice. That speed, which equates to a lap time of 47.112-seconds, is the fastest anyone has gone around the 2.5-mile Daytona Superspeedway in any of the official practice sessions during Speedweeks 2008.
Happy Hour also saw more than its fair share of surprise packages, none more so than John Andretti who, as the race's rank outsider in the #34 Front Row Motorsports Chevrolet, set second fastest time with a lap of 47.136-seconds (190.937mph).
Behind Andretti came fellow veteran Kyle Petty in the #45 Petty Enterprises Dodge followed by owner/driver Robby Gordon, a second Roush-Fenway Ford in the hands of Greg Biffle and JJ Yeley in the engine blighted #96 Hall of Fame Racing Toyota.
Reed Sorenson, Jeff Burton, Brian Vickers and Juan Montoya rounded out the top ten as many of the expected pre-race favourites chose to keep their drafting cards close to their chests.
Kyle Busch who, along with his JGR teammates Denny Hamlin and Tony Stewart, holds Toyota's best chance of ‘500 victory, was 14th fastest with Stewart and Hamlin 24th and 26th respectively. The Hendrick Motorsports steamroller was also quite quiet with polesitter Jimmie Johnson 31st, Dale Earnhardt Jr 37th and Jeff Gordon 39th.
