of his car and made heavy contact with an outside SAFER barrier; he was evaluated at the infield care center and was later released to continue testing. During the third session with eighty-four cars, Jeremy Mayfield had the fastest speed of and Kurt Busch set the fastest speed of in the fourth and final session held in the evening. David Gilliland spun but avoided contact with a wall. There was one change of driver before the race. Starting at the 2007 Coca-Cola 600, 1988 NASCAR Winston Cup Series champion Bill Elliott returned to NASCAR on a part-time schedule for Wood Brothers Racing, replacing the team's regular driver Ken Schrader, who drove in the season's first eleven races. Elliott was eligible to use six Champion's Provisionals if the need arose. Elliott was looking forward to returning to racing: "I was pretty honored to get a call from the Wood Brothers to drive the 21 car. I've seen them struggle the last few weeks, being outside the top 35, and it breaks my heart to see them miss races. I hope I can get in the car, get us qualified well every week and see what we can make up in the points battle along the way." Practice and qualification Three practice sessions were held before the Sunday race; one on Thursday and two on Saturday. The first session lasted 90 minutes, the second 50 minutes and the third 60 minutes. In the first practice session, Elliott Sadler was fastest with a time of 29.697 seconds; Kahne, Ricky Rudd, Johnson, Casey Mears, Kenseth, Joe Nemechek, Kyle Busch, Scott Riggs and Jamie McMurray completed the session's top-ten drivers. Sterling Marlin hit one of the walls lining the track and switched to a back-up car. Michael Waltrip did not need to switch cars after a similar collision. Forty-nine cars entered qualifying on Friday evening; due to NASCAR's qualifying procedure forty-three were allowed to race. Each driver ran two laps, with the starting order determined by the competitor's fastest times. Drivers who set their laps late in qualifying had an advantage because the track was at its coolest. Ryan Newman clinched the 39th pole position of his career, with a time of 29.140 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by his Penske Racing South teammate Kurt Busch, and was the second-to-last driver to record his lap. Sadler qualified third, Dale Earnhardt Jr.