Logano, Almirola Take Duel Qualifier Wins At Daytona

Joey Logano and Aric Almirola made it a Ford sweep of Thursday night’s BlueGreen Duels at Daytona to set the field for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series season opening Daytona 500.

Meanwhile, a pair of Georgia drivers – Chandler Smith and Austin Hill – failed to make the field for Sunday’s 65th running of the “Great American Race.”

In the first duel, Logano held off a hard final lap charge from Christopher Bell to score the win.

Logano took the lead off a fast green flag pit stop on lap 30 of the 60 lap race, and kept his No. 22 Ford in front the rest of the way. The only challenge to Logano came on the final lap, when Bell made a move on the outside of turn four.

In a drag race to the checkered flag, it was Logano edging out the win, with Bell in second.

“I was hoping they started racing back there, which they did, which ended up kind of working out for me,” said Logano. “And then when the 20 (Bell) got to me, I saw (Ryan) Blaney was behind me. I said, ‘that’s my buddy. I’ve got to stick with him.’ I knew the 20 would make the run to the outside, and I probably wasn’t going to be able to defend that, and just waited for the 12 (Blaney) to push me through there.

“Good Penske effort there to get a Duels win. Much better than what happened last year, so glad to have a nice start here for the season.”

Ryan Blaney, who led the first half of the race, finished in third, with Chris Buescher in fourth, and Michael McDowell in fifth.

Zane Smith finished in eighth, locking the non-chartered No. 36 into Sunday’s race.

“Once we got to about 10 to go I’m like, man, please, please no caution,” Zane Smith said. “But just a huge shout-out to my whole FRM team, our Wellcare Mustang was good enough to get in, which there’s a lot of really good open cars.”

Also locked in to the 500 was 14th place finisher Jimmie Johnson, who secured his starting spot on speed Wednesday night.

Talking Rock, Georgia’s Chandler Smith drew a pit road speeding penalty after coming to pit road under green on lap 22. That penalty cost him a lap, and he ended up finishing 18th. He will not race in the Daytona 500 on Sunday.

“Even from that one Duel I learned so, so much, which was awesome and I’m taking that in,” Chandler Smith said. “Yeah, I just can’t thank everybody enough at Kaulig Racing, all the men and women that just put a full effort into coming down here and trying to attempt the Daytona 500 in a third car, first time as an organization.”

In the second Duel, Almirola’s No 10 Ford was racing side by side with Todd Gilliland on the final lap when contact from the front bumper of Kyle Larson nearly sent Gilliland’s Ford spinning off turn 2.

Gilliland was able to keep his car from crashing, but that allowed Almirola to get away from the pack, as he beat defending Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric to the checkered flag.

“Daytona is such a special place to me,” Almirola said. “I grew up sitting in those grandstands dreaming about racing here. I want that one on Sunday, though. My boss (Tony Stewart) up in the booth during that first Duel, he said, I’ve won this race three times, but yet to do it on Sunday.

“I know Sunday is the big one. We’re going to keep focused on that one. The job is not finished.”

Dawsonville, Georgia’s Chase Elliott finished in third, with Brad Keselowski in fourth, and Corey LaJoie in fifth.

Larson, Gilliland, Martin Truex, Jr., Denny Hamlin, and Ryan Preece rounded out the top 10.

While the first Duel ran incident free, a crash with 20 laps to go in the second race had a significant effect on the starting lineup for Sunday’s race.

Kyle Busch had the lead over Daniel Suarez and Larson as the field raced down the backstretch. Suarez was pushing Busch’s car, and halfway down the backstretch the push proved to be too much, as Busch spun off Suarez’s front bumper and into the outside wall.

Several others were also gathered up, including Austin Hill, Travis Pastrana, Justin Haley, Preece, and Riley Herbst.

“Just a lot of pushing and shoving for a few laps straight,” Busch said. “Doing everything you can to try and hang on, and do the best you can to make sure that you keep it straight. Just finally overloaded the left-rear and hooked it to the right.

“Hate it for all my guys. They built a fast N.8 3CHI Chevy Camaro. It was really fun to drive. It drove great the whole time. Everything was super easy, super simple. But we have a long ways to go. I don’t understand, but it is what it is.”

“I felt like the No. 5 (Larson) was pushing pretty hard to me, and I was just pushing the No. 8 (Busch) too hard,” Suarez said after the race. “When they gave me the message to take it easy on the corners, I was going to do that. But I spun him out on the straightaway, so I was not expecting that.

“It’s unfortunate. It’s definitely not the way we had that planned.”

Hill, of Winston, Georgia was running in the transfer spot to make Sunday’s race, but was caught up in a crash with 20 laps to go that sidelined his Chevy. He was credited with an 18th place finish.

“I saw the wreck started happening and dirt started coming across the race track,” Hill said. “When the dirt was going across the track I kind of lost sight of where the cars were that were wrecked and the next thing I knew was I was trying to get on the brakes pretty hard and I don’t know if I got in the dirt and it got me loose or the 15 (Herbst) tagged me, I have no idea. Either way I started going toward the outside wall and I got a lot of damage.”

That allowed Conor Daly, who was unable to make a qualifying run and had not been up to speed during the race, to make the cut to the 500 field with a 17th place finish.

“Well, we were inherently unlucky for the last 36 hours, but we got lucky,” Daly said. “I wish I could have said that I drove it in on pure pace, but it was just crazy.

“When we went out there, the car was bouncing around. I had no idea what was going on. I thought the drivetrain was broken, and Tony just made it better every time. We got lucky with the yellows to try to get some experience, but it is pretty crazy.”

Also locked in was Pastrana, who was unable to finish, but was fast enough in Wednesday night’s qualifying to make the field on time. He was credited with a 21st place finish.

The pair of wins on Thursday night gave Ford its fourth Duel win in the last four races, and nine of the last 12.

The NASCAR Cup Series has two more practice sessions, one on Friday and the final one on Saturday, leading up to Sunday’s Daytona 500.

NASCAR Cup Series
Daytona International Speedway – Daytona Beach, FL
Bluegreen Vacations Duel 1 – February 16, 2023

1. (3) Joey Logano, Ford, 60.
2. (11) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 60.
3. (4) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 60.
4. (7) Chris Buescher, Ford, 60.
5. (13) Michael McDowell, Ford, 60.
6. (9) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 60.
7. (6) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 60.
8. (15) Zane Smith(i), Ford, 60.
9. (5) Harrison Burton, Ford, 60.
10. (2) William Byron, Chevrolet, 60.
11. (8) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 60.
12. (14) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 60.
13. (17) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 60.
14. (12) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 60.
15. (16) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 60.
16. (18) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Chevrolet, 59.
17. (1) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 59.
18. (21) Chandler Smith(i), Chevrolet, 59.
19. (10) Ty Gibbs #, Toyota, 59.
20. (19) Cody Ware, Ford, 59.
21. (20) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 59.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 187.63 mph.

Time of Race: 47 Mins, 58 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.018 Seconds.

Caution Flags: 0 for laps.

Lead Changes: 4 among 3 drivers.

Lap Leaders: A. Bowman 0;R. Blaney 1-5;R. Chastain 6;R. Blaney 7-31;J. Logano 32-60.

Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) Ryan Blaney 2 times for 30 laps; Joey Logano 1 time for 29 laps; Ross Chastain 1 time for 1 lap.

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

NASCAR Cup Series
Daytona International Speedway – Daytona Beach, FL
Bluegreen Vacations Duel 2 – February 16, 2023

1. (2) Aric Almirola, Ford, 60.
2. (4) Austin Cindric, Ford, 60.
3. (7) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 60.
4. (9) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 60.
5. (20) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 60.
6. (1) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 60.
7. (17) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 60.
8. (11) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, 60.
9. (13) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 60.
10. (8) Ryan Preece, Ford, 60.
11. (14) Noah Gragson #, Chevrolet, 60.
12. (6) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 60.
13. (10) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 60.
14. (15) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 60.
15. (3) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 60.
16. (18) B.J. McLeod, Chevrolet, 60.
17. (21) Conor Daly(i), Chevrolet, 59.
18. (16) Austin Hill(i), Chevrolet, Accident, 41.
19. (5) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, Accident, 40.
20. (19) Riley Herbst(i), Ford, Accident, 40.
21. (12) Travis Pastrana, Toyota, Accident, 40.

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

Average Speed of Race Winner: 151.813 mph.

Time of Race: 59 Mins, 17 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.122 Seconds.

Caution Flags: 2 for 9 laps.

Lead Changes: 15 among 6 drivers.

Lap Leaders: K. Larson 1;A. Almirola 2-4;K. Larson 5;A. Almirola 6-10;K. Larson 11;K. Busch 12-13;K. Larson 14;K. Busch 15-40;D. Suarez 41-42;K. Larson 43-45;A. Almirola 46;K. Larson 47-48;A. Almirola 49-54;A. Cindric 55-57;T. Gilliland 58;A. Almirola 59-60.

Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) Kyle Busch 2 times for 28 laps; Aric Almirola 5 times for 17 laps; Kyle Larson 6 times for 9 laps; Austin Cindric 1 time for 3 laps; Daniel Suarez 1 time for 2 laps; Todd Gilliland 1 time for 1 lap.

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series