Krista Voda announces that this is the final afternoon Duels at Daytona. Beginning next year the Duels will be night races. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Night races at Daytona are typically BORIN!!! The fact that the most memorable thing from last year’s Daytona races was the exploding jet dryer incident. SAD!!! While that was a sight to behold, a unique occurance, it far exceeded the drama and excitement of the races at Daytona in 2012 (and 2011 and 2010 for that matter). This is not a great idea for these races. While night races put more butts in seats in some situations, in February, in Florida, nighttime is not the right time to sit outside. At that point NASCAR & the track are basically depending on the attendance of fans from cold climates – people for whom the after-dark temperatures in Daytona are mild or warm. That cuts out a lot of the locals and probably many from nearby southeastern states who will also be very familiar with the chill in the air during that time of year, during that time of day (night). I’m a fan and love attending NASCAR races, but my local track, Atlanta, is not temperate in February and March so I never attended the Spring race at AMS. Sadly AMS lost a race theoretically due to attendance. If the race were in a warmer month I would have attended. I wanted to attend the Duels, but the weather uncertainty has made me leery of making the trip. The switch to a night race guarantees I won’t be making the trip. I’m bummed that those races have been removed as options on my NASCAR calendar with the change.
Duel #1
Sunny in Daytona as the cars roll around the track for the parade laps. Danica Patrick, the first woman pole sitter for the Daytona 500, leads the field to the green flag.
Trevor Bayne in the 21 Wood Brothers car leads the first lap.
Denny Hamlin drops down in front of Danica to challenge the 21 for the lead.
Hammond!!!! Jeff Hammond is on the broadcast. Why, oh why, can’t we have him in the booth instead of Old Larry Mc, Mc, Mc all dressed in black, black, black, with 24 buttons, buttons, buttons, all down his back, back, back….Ooops, suddenly I was back on the playground in 6th grade playing the hand clapping game with my friends. He’s such a distraction from the loveliness of the Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip, Steve Byrnes, Jeff Hammond, Hermie Sadler, and Matt Yoacum NASCAR on FOX broadcast.
Denny Hamlin got loose, spun out, and hit Carl Edwards sending him into the wall and Trevor Bayne was caught up in the incident and has damage also. With less than 10 laps to go, Carl has torn up another car. The 21 is on the hook.
With 5 laps to go on the restart, the end of the race was clean and Michael Waltrip beat out Scott Speed for the final transfer spot. Danica finished 17th, never leading. She said she lifted a little on the start and the top line was the way to go.
Carl was bummed that he’d wrecked the fourth car. He said Jack told him he’s familiar with what the wrecks look like now, so maybe he can avoid it in the race.
Trevor said his car is in bad shape after the second hit he got in that wreck. They’re really tight on cars right now.
The right side window was not in the window correctly for Martin Truex Jr which disqualifies his finish and moves Scott Speed into the race.
Duel #2
Jeff Gordon leads the field to the green flag with Newman on his outside. Ryan Newman leads the first lap by half a car length. No clear leader like the first Duel. Newman is dropping back through the pack now.
Clean, relatively quiet race. Pit stops begin. Newman slid around trying to get into pit road, he tapped the wall after locking up his tires and sliding around a bit. Jeff Gordon too fast entering pit road. Ricky Stenhouse, and Terry Labonte too fast exiting.
Kasey Kahne tries to run KyBu down, but Kyle Busch hangs on to win.
Victory Lane
Kyle Busch joins JohnnyTV & Petty Kyle on the desk for Victory Lane on SpeedTV. Poor JohnnyTV. 2 Kyles on the desk at the same time. He has to talk and remember to specify which Kyle at the same time. Sad, sad, sad. He frequently calls Petty Kyle KP, so I’m not sure why he didn’t try that at the time, but ok. I don’t expect a whole lot from him and usually, like today, he delivers. When KyBu gets a chance to talk (Petty Kyle’s keeps stammering over him) he blows Petty Kyle away. Other than the fact I enjoy watching KyBu race I wish he were they Kyle on the desk always and forever!!!
Awwww, Happy Harvick is sitting outside by his motorhome, because the baby is asleep inside. So sweet! There’s a sign on the door to let him know Kelan is asleep. KHarv says its hard getting Kelan to go to sleep so he’s just sitting outside in a chaise lounge, with his firesuit on, his shoes off and his feet up on some of Kelan’s toys.
Kenny Wallace did a cute interview outside Smoke’s motorhome – Smoke was peeking out the window and answering questions while Kenny stood outside with his microphone at the window.