Biffle, Hornish hit wall in final practice at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- After 130 minutes of practice Thursday at Daytona International Speedway, 45 Sprint Cup teams were left with a lot of uncertainty looking ahead to Saturday night's Coke Zero 400, including the fastest men from both practices.

Things will come into better focus in the only Cup track session Friday, qualifying for the 18th race of the season, which is scheduled for 4:10 p.m. ET.

Biffle

An accident with less than 10 minutes left in the nighttime Happy Hour definitely sent 2003 Daytona summer winner Greg Biffle and Sam Hornish Jr. to backup cars; but neither was exactly sure what had happened.

Before he hurried away from the race track, Biffle told his PR representative that he thought Hornish had gotten loose underneath the No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford that Biffle used in the Daytona 500 and qualified on the outside of the front row with this spring at Talladega before he finished seventh.

Crew chief Greg Erwin said the team's backup car had yet to turn a lap on the race track.

Hornish had a slightly better view from his No. 77 Penske Racing Dodge, which he said was a brand new chassis that was replaced, crew chief Travis Geisler said, by a car that was "just as good as any we have" that was last used at Talladega, where Hornish finished 34th after being involved in an accident.

"We had just put some new tires on there and made a couple adjustments and were gonna make a couple more laps to see where we were at," Hornish said. "I think Greg said he just got loose and I was just trying not to run him over at that point in time, so there wasn't enough room. I went into the corner and I was only half a car-length behind him, so by the time he got corrected I thought he must've lost a tire with how quick it came around on him. You can't do anything."

Hornish, who was 14th in the first practice, was ninth on the time sheet when the accident occurred. His car was pinched into the wall between Turns 1 and 2 by Biffle's and it suffered damage on the left front and along the entire right side. When he returned to the garage, he spent five minutes signing autographs through the fence for fans in Daytona's "Fan Zone."

"It was kind of a shame that it occurred before the race even starts, but we'll see what happens," Hornish said. "The backup is not as good as what we had. It's unfortunate because it was brand-new and it was a pretty good piece."

Before that accident broke out, Thursday had been a typical July day at the World Center of Racing, from the heat and humidity to a rain shower that prematurely ended Nationwide Series Happy Hour and delayed the start of Cup final practice 83 minutes to an early tire problem.

A quick check after a wide patch of rubber came off the inside shoulder of the right rear tire on Jeff Gordon's No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in the afternoon practice proved an equal amount of uncertainty was brewing in that corner.

"We have a new car here and it seems to be performing well, especially down the straightaway," No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver Denny Hamlin said. "Handling-wise it seems like it's real bad but I think everyone's is. We ran more laps [31] than anyone [but Biffle] that [first] practice.

"We didn't have any tire issues. I know a lot of guys ran half the laps and did have tire issues. I'm pretty excited about that. We at least have a car that's balanced enough where we're not going to rip the tires off. I saw a bunch of guys having right rear problems and I think that's pretty common here.

• Speeds: Practice 1 | Practice 2

"It's going to be common during the day. I think it's definitely going to be better by nighttime but my guess, if I had to predict, is that there would be two or three issues during the race but I think it's just going to be isolated or setup related. It's not going to be an actual tire issue."

"Actually our [tires] looked pretty good, but I actually saw a lot of 'em in the garage that didn't look so well," Michael Waltrip Racing competition director Bobby Kennedy said. "We did the tire test here with [Marcos] Ambrose and it went pretty well and we had a good handling package on his car [Thursday], so our stuff looks pretty good -- but the green race track definitely plays into some of it."

Hornish

A Goodyear tire representative said nothing the manufacturer saw in the first practice was unusual; and that the Daytona tire test, which was done last month by 10 teams, went well. Gordon and his crew chief, Steve Letarte, said their problem was specific to one tire, with the crew chief saying he wasn't sure if Gordon hadn't run over something to make the tread come off.

"That was a problem with the tire, a de-lamination -- something that rarely ever happens -- we're not having any wear issues," Gordon said. "It's deceiving looking at it on TV, but when you're only out there for five laps or so -- actually that was our second run so it might have had about 15 laps on it, but that was the only issue we had.

"We're seeing some bits and pieces on some front tires, but I think we're good on rears."

With what happened on the race track, optimism mixed with concern over the unknown ruled.

David Ragan, who had a stunning rookie Cup debut at Daytona, finishing fifth in the 2007 Daytona 500 after wrecking in his Gatorade Duel and who was fifth in this event last year, was quickest in late afternoon with a lap in 47.191 seconds, an average speed of 190.714 mph in his No. 6 Roush Fenway Ford.

"I think the track got a little tighter and we made a few adjustments and I'm glad the rain held off so we could get some laps in, because I think that was good for everyone," Ragan said. "I'm excited about our UPS Ford because it feels a bit better than our Daytona 500 car did and we finished sixth there, so this has been a good track for us in the past so hopefully we can be there at the end."

Ragan fell to 32nd on the evening chart, behind fast man David Reutimann, who spent most of the session -- which like the afternoon's was mostly taken up in drafting practice -- atop the sheet, where he ended at 46.842 / 192.135 in his No. 00 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota.

"Top of the sheet and unfortunately it doesn't mean a darn thing," Reutimann said, laughing. "At all but two of the tracks we go to in the course of the year, the top of the sheet means something, but here and Talladega, it just doesn't, unfortunately. We danced around both sides of the deal and we did find some things that made our car better.

"But I'll tell you what, it's so hot out there and the cars slide around so much, it's pretty rough and you've got your hands full out there, and you have to try to make your car be less of a handful than what the other cars are. Here, you just try to make it handle, and we didn't end [Happy Hour] happy. I feel like we're closer, but I'm going to a meeting now to see if we can figure out some things."

Even Casey Mears, whose No. 07 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet team needs all the good runs it can get, admitted that practice could only tell you so much after he was second in both afternoon and evening sessions.

"The scoreboard is based on how you get runs here, really, and we just happened to be in two pretty good positions to get good laps in, in both practices," said Mears, who has only two top-10 finishes in 13 career Daytona starts. "But I've been here before and even in those situations I couldn't put a good lap in, so at least it shows that our car does have a little bit of speed; it was fast in the draft and it sucked-up well, so we've got a good car, we've just got to make it through most of the miles and be there at the end."

Jamie McMurray won the 2007 Daytona summer race. His No. 26 Roush Fenway Ford was third in opening practice and 14th in the evening, but McMurray admitted the race would almost be a dice roll.

"The car was decent, but we've had good cars here before and you just can't control what might happen to you," McMurray said. "All you can do is do all you can to be around at the end and try to make something happen, and we were fairly happy with where we got our car today."