Austin Dillon will start on the pole Sunday for the exhibition Clash At Daytona. Denny Hamlin will join him on the front row for the 75-lap race, which will have a competition caution on lap 25. There are 17 drivers in the event for 2017 pole winners, playoff drivers and past Daytona 500 pole winners.

Bob Pockrass, NASCAR

William Byron led the second and last Daytona 500 practice of the day as he was one of six NASCAR Cup drivers to break 201 mph for a lap in the draft at Daytona. The others: Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, David Ragan and Paul Menard. Drivers will do single-car qualifying runs Sunday to determine the Daytona 500 pole and won't have another practice before the qualifying races Thursday.

Bob Pockrass, NASCAR

NASCAR Executive VP Steve O'Donnell on the fact there are only 40 cars entered, meaning no one will have to race into the field at the Daytona 500 qualifying races Thursday: "You can look at a car count and you can look at 30 out of 40 drivers who never have a chance to win or you can look at the quality of the field and say, 'Who's going to win the Daytona 500' and I think it's one of the best fields we've had. It's deep. In the future would we like to see more? We probably would. But I think when you look across all of sports now, the idea of sending someone home with a major sponsor just doesn't happen in sports today, and it's not just a reality for NASCAR, it's really all motorsports."

Bob Pockrass, NASCAR

Kyle Busch tops the board in opening practice Saturday at Daytona. Danica Patrick (7) was 31st in preparation for her final NASCAR race.

Bob Pockrass, NASCAR

The first official practice for the 2018 season is about to begin at Daytona International Speedway. There is one practice today for the 17 drivers in the exhibition Clash, scheduled for Sunday. There are two practices this afternoon for the Feb. 18 Daytona 500.

Bob Pockrass, NASCAR

NASCAR is using its new body scan system that it hopes evens the playing field by keeping teams from exposing gray areas in the previous template inspection bay. This system uses eight projectors and 17 cameras and creates a map of the body by scanning 150,000 to 200,000 different points of the car.

Bob Pockrass, NASCAR

There are 40 cars on the Daytona 500 entry list released Thursday by NASCAR. If that remains the case (the garage opens Friday), then no driver will be sent home. Practice begins Saturday with single-car qualifying Sunday. The four drivers currently entered who would have to qualify their way in if there are more than 40 cars are Brendan Gaughan, Mark Thompson, David Gilliland and D.J. Kennington. BK Racing, which has a guaranteed spot, is entered but has not named a driver.

Bob Pockrass, NASCAR

NASCAR has added anti-estrogen drugs to its prohibited drug list because the drugs can be used as masking agents for steroids. The list of banned anti-estrogens, according to the rulebook, are "including, without limitation, anastrozole, tamoxifen, formestane, ATD, clomiphene, SERMS (nolvadex), Arimidex, clomid, evista, fulvestrant, aromatase inhibitors (Androst-3, 5-dien, 17-dione), etc."

Bob Pockrass, NASCAR

The military's Navy Band Southeast will perform the national anthem prior to the Feb. 18 Daytona 500.

Bob Pockrass, NASCAR

NASCAR will give teams six minutes instead of five minutes to do repairs following a crash. If a team has more than five crew members working on a car following a crash, the penalty will now be a two-lap hold instead of parking the car for the remainder of the event -- the penalty that ended up knocking Matt Kenseth out of the playoffs last year. NASCAR also announced that it has shortened the first round of qualifying at short tracks and intermediate tracks from 20 minutes to 15 minutes.

Bob Pockrass, NASCAR