Zane Smith, Conor Daly Secure Daytona 500 Starts After Duels – Motorsports Tribune

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Two wildly different paths, same result.

After a combined 300 miles of racing in the two Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona International Speedway on Thursday night, the 40-car field for the 65^th running of the Daytona 500 is now complete, with defending Truck Series champion Zane Smith and Conor Daly punching their ticket for Sunday.

Racing in the first Duel race, Smith was able to breathe a sigh of relief early on after finishing eighth in his race, ahead of seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson in 14^th and Chandler Smith a lap down in 18^th.

Following the strong Ford contingent into the top-10 early on, Zane was able to hold serve for the remainder of the race while Johnson faded back into the pack and Chandler Smith found himself trying to play catch-up following a pit road speeding penalty.

“It’s such a weird feeling… this event is just so big,” Zane said. “I wanted to walk out Sunday afternoon knowing I was going to start in the Daytona 500, and we accomplished that.

“That’s a huge shoutout to everyone. We all work together so well. Without my Ford teammates, I wouldn’t be here right now. I’m just so proud of everyone, and I’m excited for Sunday. The car has been great. We saw how fast all of us are together, and the big thing is on these superspeedways, how well we work together. That’s what I was mostly impressed by.

“I’m excited for what I can help out with on Sunday. I definitely want to help out my FRM teammates like Michael [McDowell] helped me out today. We’ll grind hard on Sunday.”

With Zane joining the field on Sunday, all three defending national series champions will take the green flag, as Xfinity Series champion Ty Gibbs makes his Daytona 500 debut and Cup champion Joey Logano starts third after winning the first Duel race.

While the first Duel was pretty much cut and dry, the second Duel was anything but.

From the get go, it seemed like the final transfer spot into the Daytona 500 was Austin Hill’s to lose after Conor Daly was battling a ill-handling car that he compared more to riding on a Supercross track than the Daytona high banks.

With Daly a lap down and severely off the pace, it was just a matter of finishing all the laps for Hill to be able to clench the final spot in Sunday’s race.

Then came a tangle at the front of the field between leader Kyle Busch and Daniel Suarez on lap 41 that…