Martin Truex Jr. posted the second-best overall speed (192.505 mph) during the final practice session for the Daytona 500.

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER CHEVROLET: YOU WERE ABLE TO RUN WITH DALE EARNHARDT JR. DURING PRACTICE. “We got together earlier in practice today and drove right up through the pack. My car is really, really awesome. It’s so much better than I ever expected it to be. I’m just really excited for tomorrow.” IS IT GOING TO BE TOUGH TO PASS WITHOUT BUMP DRAFTINTG? “When we get three-wide and two-wide in a really big pack, yeah, probably. It gets real stagnant and the lines don’t move. You’ll get to a point where nobody is moving a lot of times and the bump draft is just what gets everything moving again. It’ll be around but it’s really, really slick out there and the tires are going to wear out. The field is going to separate and it’s going to make for a lot better race with a lot less bump drafting, I think.” HOW WAS THE CAR? “The car was awesome. The Bass Pro Chevy was really, really strong. I really feel like we can win the race and just look forward to tomorrow.” DO YOU WISH TODAY WAS SUNDAY? “Yeah, kinda [smiles]. Naw, it will give the guys a little time to relax and get the car just right. We got it driving really good yesterday and we changed some stuff last night, put our race motor in. Man, the thing just flies now and it’s still driving good. I’m really, really looking forward to tomorrow. I told the guys and now Dale Jr. has done all that stuff in the past and now I know how he does it. I was out there in practice and the thing was just flying. I got behind him and followed him up through the field once and we drove up through the pack. Both of our cars are really good, I think.” IS DALE JR. THE GUY TO BEAT? “Well, I think he is. If we had the same car he’s definitely the guy to beat. He’s got the experience here. I jumped in behind him there and pushed him all the way to the front and hopefully we can do the same tomorrow. If I’ve got to finish second to him, I’m cool with that.” SOME TEAMS RAN MORE LAPS THAN OTHERS IN PRACTICE. WHAT WAS YOUR STRATEGY? “We had our car driving good yesterday. We made a whole fuel run yesterday and we wanted to make sure how much the track had changes so we put tires on and we ran out of gas again. The track was a little bit tighter today so we had to free it up a little. We got our car driving really good. The guys done some stuff to it last night, put the race motor in and did all the final tune ups and actually gave me what I’m going to have tomorrow and I could not believe the difference. I’m real thankful for that and all their hard work. They gave me an awesome car.” COULD WE SEE TWO-TIRE STOPS IN THE RACE? “No, you can’t change two tires. If you did, you’d go straight to the back, I think. If you go eight or 10 laps you’ll be putting four on.”