Alex Bowman (48) won the pole for the Daytona 500 in qualifying. Tonight the rest of the field qualifies for the Daytona 500 over the course of the two Duel races.
Duel #1
As boring as it could be. TV tried to show the race, then they stopped racing and were just logging laps single file for most of the event, so FS1 had to resort to a variety of gimmick shots. The 50 laps in the bag have felt like 75 or 90 dull laps. It doesn’t make me excited about the remaining ten laps. There are two groups, due to two pit strategies, all driving single-file.
Joey Logano (22) easily wins, holding off a last minute charge by Christopher ‘CBell’ Bell (20).
MRN mentioned that the teams mentioned they were using the Duel races as practice since they haven’t had a practice session. It was less interesting than a daytime practice session; very tame.
Duel #2
Caution on lap 3 of 60 for debris. Someone lost a window.
Twenty laps of side-by-side racing; followed by a single-file parade for 20 laps until Daniel Suarez turned Kyle Busch into the wall on lap 40 of 60 bringing out the caution. Austin Hill (62), Travis Pastrana (67), Ryan Preece (41), Justin Haley (31), and Riley Herbst (15) were collected. Daniel Suarez (99) turned Kyle ‘KyBu’ Busch (8) into the wall while KyBu was leading.
Suarez drove through his pit box during the caution pit stop.
They decided to race for the last ten laps.
Aric ‘Afterburner’ Almirola (10) easily wins the second duel.
Conor Daly (50) transfers in to the Daytona 500 since Austin Hill (62) wrecks out. Tony Eury Jr is the crew chief for Conor. They did not qualify because a custom part broke on the car and no one had a spare so a crew member had to go back to Charlotte to get a replacement since they couldn’t find one at any of the part shops in Daytona.
Duel 2 was better than the first one, but it would be hard to be worst. The last ten laps were tense, but in the end experience won out over inexperience and the real talent was stuck behind other cars.