Kyle Busch picked up where he left off posting the fastest lap in the first Friday practice for the 61st running of the Daytona 500.
Busch’s speed of 200.285 on his fourth lap resulted in a time of 44.936 seconds around the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway. Teammate Martin Truex Jr. was second fastest with fellow Toyota driver Ryan Preece third fastest. Erik Jones, another Joe Gibbs Racing driver, was fourth fastest followed by Ryan Newman who was the first non-Toyota.
In total 36 cars took laps in the first practice session.
MENCS Friday Practice #1
| RaceRank | No | Driver | BestLapTime | BestSpeed | BestLap | Laps |
| 1 | 18 | Kyle Busch | 44.936 | 200.285 | 4 | 15 |
| 2 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | 44.955 | 200.2 | 12 | 19 |
| 3 | 47 | Ryan Preece # | 44.962 | 200.169 | 5 | 17 |
| 4 | 20 | Erik Jones | 44.965 | 200.156 | 4 | 14 |
| 5 | 6 | Ryan Newman | 44.979 | 200.093 | 18 | 21 |
| 6 | 95 | Matt DiBenedetto | 44.982 | 200.08 | 7 | 18 |
| 7 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | 44.99 | 200.044 | 8 | 18 |
| 8 | 43 | Bubba Wallace | 45.084 | 199.627 | 5 | 28 |
| 9 | 38 | David Ragan | 45.159 | 199.296 | 5 | 20 |
| 10 | 9 | Chase Elliott | 45.179 | 199.208 | 3 | 16 |
| 11 | 13 | Ty Dillon | 45.242 | 198.93 | 5 | 23 |
| 12 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | 45.244 | 198.921 | 4 | 21 |
| 13 | 34 | Michael McDowell | 45.309 | 198.636 | 5 | 20 |
| 14 | *62 | Brendan Gaughan(i) | 45.338 | 198.509 | 5 | 8 |
| 15 | 8 | Daniel Hemric # | 45.392 | 198.273 | 19 | 26 |
| 16 | 24 | William Byron | 45.397 | 198.251 | 20 | 32 |
| 17 | *31 | Tyler Reddick(i) | 45.404 | 198.22 | 18 | 22 |
| 18 | 3 | Austin Dillon | 45.411 | 198.19 | 19 | 27 |
| 19 | 14 | Clint Bowyer | 45.46 | 197.976 | 12 | 12 |
| 20 | *27 | Casey Mears | 45.586 | 197.429 | 9 | 11 |
| 21 | *96 | Parker Kligerman(i) | 45.82 | 196.421 | 3 | 8 |
| 22 | 37 | Chris Buescher | 46.203 | 194.793 | 9 | 9 |
| 23 | 88 | Alex Bowman | 46.617 | 193.063 | 18 | 20 |
| 24 | 10 | Aric Almirola | 46.66 | 192.885 | 4 | 12 |
| 25 | 22 | Joey Logano | 46.716 | 192.653 | 3 | 13 |
| 26 | 00 | Landon Cassill | 46.894 | 191.922 | 16 | 16 |
| 27 | 40 | Jamie McMurray | 46.953 | 191.681 | 15 | 18 |
| 28 | 36 | Matt Tifft # | 46.993 | 191.518 | 1 | 4 |
| 29 | 41 | Daniel Suarez | 46.999 | 191.493 | 4 | 9 |
| 30 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | 47.013 | 191.436 | 8 | 13 |
| 31 | 1 | Kurt Busch | 47.207 | 190.65 | 5 | 18 |
| 32 | 21 | Paul Menard | 47.261 | 190.432 | 14 | 18 |
| 33 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | 47.322 | 190.186 | 7 | 10 |
| 34 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 47.353 | 190.062 | 9 | 9 |
| 35 | 42 | Kyle Larson | 47.486 | 189.53 | 21 | 21 |
| 36 | 32 | Corey LaJoie | 47.818 | 188.214 | 8 | 12 |
