What Happened?
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Joey Logano and Aric Almirola swept the Bluegreen Vacations Duels for Ford at Daytona International Speedway on Thursday night (Feb. 16).
Zane Smith and Conor Daly filled out the last two transfer spots for the 40-car field in Sunday’s Daytona 500 after racing their way in.
Chandler Smith and Austin Hill were both eliminated and will not contend in this year’s Great American Race.
It is the second year in a row that Ford has won both Duel races.
But What Really Happened?
An absolute miracle in an absolute snore.
During Wednesday afternoon’s media day scrum, Chris Buescher spoke about the absence of a parts shortage heading into the weekend affecting the way they raced on Thursday.
Since there would be no worries surrounding replacement parts for the Next Gen car, drivers would have more freedom to race as they pleased during the twin 150-mile qualifying races that set the field for the Daytona 500. With that in mind, everyone braced ourselves for an exciting Thursday night of competition.
That’s not what happened.
The first heat race of the night saw some side-by-side racing for about 10 laps before the field became a familiar form of a locomotive.
Until one lap to go in the first Duel, that’s the way it was.
The Fords (and some Toyotas) had pulled away, outsmarting the Chevrolets on pit strategy and fought amongst each other for the top spot once the white flag waved. In the end, Logano prevailed.
As far as these races go, that’s par for the course.
And for most of duel two, it was going the same way. As the field circulated around the 2.5-mile speedway in a train for most of the first 43 laps, the headlines were already written with race leader Kyle Busch as the winner.
To make the race less interesting, Daly had already gone a lap down on the field, leaving 500 qualifying rival Hill in perfect position to capitalize. Hill chose to ride in the back with Travis Pastrana, driving the other open car but whose qualifying time had already locked him into Sunday’s race.
Then, out of nowhere came an absolute miracle for the No. 50, unexpected contact on a straightaway that changed the whole complexion of the race.
Daniel Suarez sent the No. 8 of Busch into the outside wall with less than 20 laps to go. For the new Richard Childress Racing driver, it was a…
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