Logano, Byron win Daytona Duel qualifying races
Image by Jarrett/LAT
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Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service | 23 hours ago
Joey Logano grabbed the lead on the final lap of the first Bluegreen Vacations Duel 150-mile qualifying race Thursday at Daytona International Speedway and held on for the win, claiming a Duel victory for the second straight year.
In the second Duel, William Byron made a late charge to edge Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson for the victory by just .117 seconds. Byron will start fourth in Sunday’s Daytona 500 (2:30 p.m. ET Sunday on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Byron’s Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet won Duel No. 2. Image by Miller/LAT
The victory in the qualifier was Byron’s first win of any kind in the NASCAR Cup Series and his first after teaming with seven-time champion crew chief Chad Knaus last year.
Logano led four times for 22 laps in the first Duel, but the real drama was a wreck at the halfway point that
dashed Daniel Suarez’s prospects of competing in his first Daytona 500 with his new team Gaunt Brothers Racing.
Suarez’s No. 96 Toyota tangled with Ryan Blaney’s No. 12 Ford as a contingent of Fords was trying to exit the banking onto pit road. Suarez tried to shoot a gap between Blaney in the outside lane and Brad Keselowski on the bottom, only to have Blaney turn down the track.
Contact between the two cars turned Suarez’s Camry sideways and launched him nose-first into the outside wall, destroying the car. With Suarez out of the race, 18th-place finisher Reed Sorenson transferred into the Sunday’s Daytona 500 based on the speed he posted in last Sunday’s time trials.
After repairs on pit road, Blaney was able to continue and finished 14th.
“I guess, if you wound it, try not to kill it,” Blaney said. “We got lucky. We should have never been in that spot in the first place. It was just an error on my part and kind of a little lack of communication that didn’t end well.”
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Daytona 500 pole winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. led the field to green and was out front four times for 27 laps. After leading laps 58 and 59 of 60, Stenhouse was shuffled back on the inside lane on the final circuit as second-place finisher Aric Almirola pushed Logano to the front.