By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano and Florida native Aric Almirola each won their Bluegreen Vacations Duel at Daytona qualifying races at Daytona International Speedway Thursday night – the event setting the starting order for Sunday’s DAYTONA 500 (2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
It was a Ford sweep at Daytona, but the two races played out very differently.
Logano’s No. 22 Team Penske Ford led 25 of the 60 caution-free laps in the opening race, his Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney led a race best 30 laps, finishing third – behind Logano, and Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell, who crossed the finish line a mere .018-seconds after Logano.
In the late race, Almirola led only 17 laps but took the lead for good in the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford with two laps remaining and held off fellow Ford driver Austin Cindric and Chase Elliott by a slight .122-second in a race that featured more drama; two caution periods including one that ultimately took out the dominant car.
Kyle Busch led the most laps (28) in the second Duel, but his No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet was hit from behind by Daniel Suarez’s No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet and wrecked from the lead with 18 laps remaining.
“Lots of pushing and shoving,” Busch said afterward, hopeful the team could repair the car and not have to go to a back-up for the DAYTONA 500 on Sunday.
“Doing everything you can to hang on and do best you can to keep it straight,” Busch said of the incident. “Finally overloaded the left rear and hooked it to the right. Hate it for all my guys. Built a fast Chevy Camaro and was fun to drive. Had a long way to go and don’t understand [this] but it is what it is.”
That six-car accident also damaged Austin Hill’s Chevrolet so badly he had to pull it into the garage. That gave the final DAYTONA 500 transfer position to IndyCar Series regular Conor Daly, whose No. 50 TMT Racing Chevrolet finished the race 17th in the 21-car field, a lap down. The car had a mechanical problem Wednesday night and wasn’t even able to turn a pole qualifying lap.
“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…
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