DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Feb. 15, 2013) – The season’s first practice session saw the season’s first multicar accident, with five cars involved in an accident that took place only nine minutes into the season’s first practice. The result sends Roush Fenway’s Carl Edwards and the No. 99 Fastenal team to a backup car for tomorrow night’s Sprint Unlimited all-star race.
“I didn’t see anything,” said Edwards. “I should have been listening to my spotter Jason Hedlesky because he said, ‘watch ‘em, watch ‘em’ about two seconds before this happened. I just didn’t step on the brakes early enough. I don’t know exactly and Matt (Kenseth) probably had no clue that Kurt (Busch) was underneath him.
“That one little beat and I hit Mark (Martin) and I thought I was clear and you will see Kurt in front of me and he was sideways into the wall,” added Edwards. “It is pretty frustrating. The silver lining for us is that last year we came down here and we sat on the pole for the 500 and everything was cool and smooth and our year went terrible. Hopefully this is all our bad luck.”
RFR’s Greg Biffle was third fastest in both sessions with a fast lap of 109.109 mph.
“I’m pretty happy with the car,” said Biffle. “The guys on the 3M team have done a great job. It drove good in practice, the thing now will be to see what it’s like when 25 other cars our out there and trying to go for position.”
Biffle ran a total of 37 laps in the two sessions; 22 in the first practice and 15 in the second.
The Sprint Unlimited is slated for tomorrow night at 8:10 p.m. EST and will be televised live on FOX. After a fan vote, the 75-lap race will feature a format that consists of three segments – 30-25-20 laps.
Nineteen cars will compete in the Unlimited. General Daytona 500 practice for all teams will begin tomorrow.
