NASCAR Season Off to a Rough Start

NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers appeared a bit rusty in today's practice sessions for Saturday's Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway. When the smoke cleared, six Cup cars were trashed by crashes involving seven drivers.

The first incident occurred just 20 minutes into the first practice session when Denny Hamlin tapped Mark Martin going into turn 1, triggering a wreck that also collected Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer (subbing for an ill Kevin Harvick) and Jamie McMurray.

The second practice session didn't fair much better, as Juan Montoya bumped Kurt Busch into the frontstretch wall just three minutes after the track went green.

All but Juan Montoya had to pull out back-up cars.

Jeff Burton topped the first practice session at 193.303 mph. Kasey Kahne was fastest in the second session at 191.673 mph.

Two practice sessions are scheduled Friday for the Daytona 500 (2:00pm ET and 4:00pm ET). The Budweiser Shootout will kick off the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup season at 8:00pm ET on Saturday.