Yesterday may have marked the start of the on track action for the 2015 NASCAR season, today was the first practice sessions for the Great American Race next Sunday 22nd of February.

The first session was won by driver of the #17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr with a time of 44.413 seconds and a speed of 202.643mph.

Sam Hornish Jr #9, Trevor Bayne #6, Aric Almirola #43 and Dale Earnhardt in the #88 rounded out the top five as Reed Sorenson in the #44 finished 48th with a speed of 184mph.

The second and final practice session of the day was taken surprisingly by driver of the #95 Michael McDowell with a time of 45.153 seconds as Jimmie Johnson, Ty Dillon, Kasey Kahne and Jeff Gordon rounded out the top five.

Below is an account of the first of the two practice sessions of the day at Daytona International Speedway:

As is usually the case at restrictor plate tracks like Daytona International Speedway, six time champion Jimmie Johnson was first out onto the track logging laps on his own.

The 25 drivers who are taking part in the Sprint Unlimited tonight were using their Budweiser Duels and Daytona 500 cars during this practice session.

A pack of 20 cars formed itself within the first quarter of an hour on track and Stenhouse Jr in the #17 went to the top of the board with a 44.413 second lap and a speed of 202.643mph.

Team Penske drivers Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski joint up with driver of the Wood Brothers #21 Ryan Blaney early on as that team is a subsidiary to Penske.

As the session hit the 15 minute mark the red flag was displayed for debris on the track.

After the red flag was over the Richard Childress Racing drivers, Ryan Newman, Paul Menard, Brian Scott, Ty Dillon and Austin Dillon, linked up to run some laps together.

Hornish Jr, who is returning to the Sprint Cup Series full time in 2015 driving the #9 for Richard Petty Motorsports, told FOX: "So far so good (Hornish Jr was 2nd on the board) in the Twisted Tea #9.

"We just wanted to team up and see how it would go and it worked so hopefully it will be the same tomorrow in qualifying."

At the 45 minute mark 44 of the 49 cars at the track had been out on track as the top five was: Stenhouse Jr, Hornish Jr, Bayne, Almirola and Earnhardt Jr.

Practice leader Stenhouse Jr told FOX in the pit lane: "The Fastenal Ford is good and lined up with some of our team mates, the aim is for it to be good tomorrow though."

As the session reached the half way point there was no change in the top five on the board but 46 of the 49 cars in attendance had posted a lap.

There was almost the first trouble of the session between David Gilliland in the #38 and rookie Justin Marks in the #29 as Gilliland pulled up to the back of Marks to give him and push and almost spun the rookie out.

Of the 49 drivers at the track Martin Truex Jr, Johnny Sauter and Josh Wise are the three cars yet to make a run in the session.

Ron Hornaday Jr driving the #30 is hoping to be back in the Sprint Cup Series full time this year at the age of 56 and was in 44th with 45 minutes remaining.

With just half an hour to go there was still no change in the top five on the board as teams began to experiment with their cars and drivers went out for single car runs.

Sauter in the #83 made his first run of the session with 25 minutes to go in a group of five cars that included rookie Marks.

With a quarter of an hour left the top five was still the same as it had been for most of the two hour session as 47 of the 49 cars had made laps on track.

Wise in the #98 made his first laps of the session with 11 minutes to go and put himself in 47th place on the board.

Michael Waltrip, team owner of MW Racing and driving the #55 during speedweeks, told FOX: "I love keeping up with all of the new technology and just having fun in the car.

"I just can't believe how quick the cars are now, especially here."

With under ten minutes to go the four Stewart Haas Racing drivers teamed up for the first time in the session along with Michael Annett and Justin Allgaier to improve their times before the end.

As the red flag came out to close the first session, Stenhouse Jr was still at the top of the board as Truex Jr was the only driver of the 49 to not make a lap.