Michael Valiante set the fastest time during the final practice session Thursday afternoon before qualifying for the 51st Rolex 24 at Daytona. The No. 6 Michael Shank Racing Ford Riley set a best lap of 1:42.122, good enough for a 0.139-second cushion over Dane Cameron in Team Sahlen's No. 42 BMW Riley. Jamie McMurray was third at 1:42.431 in the No. 02 Target/TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing BMW Riley.
Nick Tandy set the fastest GT time at 1:48.299 in Konrad Motorsport/Orbit Racing's Porsche GT3. The class was a dogfight with the top eight cars covered by a second. Sean Edwards was second in MOMO/NGT Motorsport's No. 30 Porsche GT3 at 1:48.478, followed by Magnus Racing's Andy Lally in Magnus Racing's No. 44 Porsche at 1:48.646.
Shane Lewis went quickest in GX for Napleton Racing in the No. 16 Porsche Cayman. His time of 1:54.162 was ahead of Bullett Racing's Darryl O'Young at 1:59.540. Andrew Carbonell was third in class for Freedom Autosport/Speedsource's Mazda 6 at 2:02.283.
The track then was turned over to the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge. Jade Buford captured his first career GS pole position for the BMW Performance 200 at Daytona International Speedway on Thursday afternoon. He set a time of 1:56.512 for driving the No. 55 Multimatic Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage in a shortened-session following a black-flag period four minutes into qualifying. He was 0.319sec clear of Jack Roush Jr., last year's race winner, in the No. 61 Roush Performance Mustang Boss 302 R. Joey Atterbury was third at 1:57.037 in the No. 51 Roush Mustang.
The top five cars qualified within 0.628sec.
Ryan Ellis captured his second ST pole position at Daytona in three years with a 2:06.109 in i-Moto Racing's No. 30 Mazda Speed 3. His last-lap flyer was 0.05sec clear of Tyler Cooke, who moved up to second on his last lap in the No. 81 BimmerWorld BMW 328i. APR Motorsport's Mikey Taylor had provisional pole until Ellis took the spot at 2:06.391.