Johnson tops final Shootout practice

The Californian set a fastest lap of 46.724 seconds at an average speed of 192.620 miles per hour under the lights at Daytona, improving over Kyle Busch's benchmark from the first practice.

"The pace picked up I'd say probably half a second for the fastest lap," Johnson said. "The average of the 26 laps that we ran it was much quicker than what we ran earlier today. We kind of expected that with how cool it is and track temperature coming down and how old this track is."

The session got started with an early caution when the engine on Jeff Burton's car blew up on his third lap while exiting turn four. The Richard Childress driver will now be forced to an engine change, which sends him to the back of the grid.

"We just broke an engine," Burton said. "Our guys were real aggressive with our engine package here for the Shootout, which is that they are supposed to be doing. I am proud of them for throwing caution to the wind and going out here to try to win this race.

"The engine we are going to put in it is a real good engine. It is not like [the one that broke], but that was special stuff, but that is alright."

With 15 minutes left of the one-hour session, the caution flag waved again after Paul Menard spun between turns one and two, being collected by Scott Speed. Menard expects to have his car repaired as he earned pole position for Saturday night's event.

The Yates driver was optimistic about not needing a switch to his back up car.

"It doesn't look that bad," said Menard about his car. "But you never know once you get all the tyres off and put it up on jack stands. We'll see."

Speed had far more damage on the right front corner of his car, but he too expects his team will be able to change the front-clip of his No. 82 Red Bull Toyota.

"It was definitely good that we got most of practice in, and it's good we got my first wreck under my belt here at Daytona," Speed said. "We came out and I was okay, so that's a good thing.

"The guy in front of me started spinning out and slowing down, and I had nowhere to go, so I started doing the same. I couldn't really see much, honestly."

Kasey Kahne also had some damage on the right side of his car after brushing the wall out of turn four. The Richard Petty Motorsports driver still finished fourth in the timesheets behind his teammate AJ Allmendinger and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Similarly Kyle Busch, who paced the first practice session of the day, got some bodywork damage on the right rear corner of his Toyota after being hit by Reed Sorenson while trying to avoid contact with cars slowing down in front of them.

Robby Gordon, who is driving a Dodge for the Shooutout but will enter a Toyota for the Daytona 500 also had some trouble with a slipping clutchand finished down in 25th place.

Tony Stewart rounded up the top-five, while Casey Mears was at the bottom of the timesheets as he was in the first practice, driving the No. 07 Richard Childress Racing Chevy.

Pos  Driver              Make        Speed     Time
 1.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet   192.620   46.724
 2.  AJ Allmendinger     Dodge       192.542   46.743 + 0.019
 3.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet   192.304   46.801 + 0.077
 4.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge       191.910   46.897 + 0.173
 5.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet   191.799   46.924 + 0.200
 6.  Denny Hamlin        Toyota      191.551   46.985 + 0.261
 7.  Greg Biffle         Ford        190.941   47.135 + 0.411
 8.  Bobby Labonte       Ford        190.545   47.233 + 0.509
 9.  Jamie McMurray      Ford        190.239   47.309 + 0.585
10.  Kyle Busch          Toyota      190.154   47.330 + 0.606
11.  Scott Speed         Toyota      190.126   47.337 + 0.613
12.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet   190.070   47.351 + 0.627
13.  Brian Vickers       Toyota      190.070   47.351 + 0.627
14.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge       190.070   47.351 + 0.627
15.  David Ragan         Ford        190.058   47.354 + 0.630
16.  Carl Edwards        Ford        190.042   47.358 + 0.634
17.  Kurt Busch          Dodge       189.938   47.384 + 0.660
18.  Joey Logano         Toyota      189.910   47.391 + 0.667
19.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet   189.902   47.393 + 0.669
20.  David Reutimann     Toyota      189.885   47.397 + 0.673
21.  Elliott Sadler      Dodge       189.881   47.398 + 0.674
22.  Paul Menard         Ford        189.705   47.442 + 0.718
23.  Matt Kenseth        Ford        189.641   47.458 + 0.734
24.  David Stremme       Dodge       189.127   47.587 + 0.863
25.  Robby Gordon        Dodge       189.087   47.597 + 0.873
26.  Michael Waltrip     Toyota      188.830   47.662 + 0.938
27.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet   188.478   47.751 + 1.027
28.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet   188.296   47.797 + 1.073