DAYTONA BEACH | The name of Alex Labbé appears at the back of the pack at the end of the only free practice session presented on Friday at the end of the afternoon.
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The Quebec driver only achieved the 39th fastest time, out of the 43 entered, in anticipation of the first event of the season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, which will be contested late Saturday afternoon at the legendary Daytona Circuit. .
Labbé was limited to seven laps (only two of which were consecutive) during the hour-long session. He stopped on many occasions in the refueling pits to allow his mechanics to make some adjustments which, according to him, were successful.
“I’m not worried about what’s next,” said Labbé when he got out of the car. We would do a lap and then stop to make adjustments. With each change, we managed to drive faster. My last two laps were also the fastest. »
Two seconds behind the leader
Labbé conceded almost two seconds to the holder of the fastest time, Myatt Snider. But this result is misleading because the leaders rode in a peloton and took advantage of the slipstream.
“I did my solo laps with the specific aim of preparing for the qualifying session. Not for the race, ”he added.
This qualifying session, scheduled for 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, provides for only one flying lap for each. Labbé, he must be among the 33 fastest to secure his place on the starting grid which will bring together 38 drivers.
Most of them, by virtue of the points collected last year, are already guaranteed to start regardless of their time in qualifying, which is unfortunately not the case for Labbé.
The latter certainly wants to redeem himself since at the same date last year at Daytona, he had not managed to qualify, failing by only two hundredths of a second.
“The behavior of the car is promising. For the qualifying lap alone, it is to be hoped that the engine meets my expectations. The important thing here at Daytona is speed. You never slow down in qualifying,” said Labbé.
The start of the race will be given at 5 p.m. on Saturday.