Daytona Can-Am Duals race were up for the Monster Energy Cup Series drivers as we finally get down to who will be in what spot for the Daytona 500 on Sunday. A couple of drivers will be going home though as we have only 40 spots for the race.
This year for the first time ever the winner of each Dual race gets 10 regular season bonus points.
The first Duals race included pole sitter Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski, and Daniel Suarez. the race included a lap 25 competition caution. The race started off with Brad Keselowksi getting to lead lap after lap. Joey Logano was the first car to make an early pit as he replaced a bad set of tires. That put him one lap down, but for a few laps was right behind Brad to get his lap back. With a couple laps left before the caution Kyle Busch took the bold move to get second place and make it two wide for the race lead. At lap 26 when the caution came out Kyle Busch fully had the race lead. When the caution came out the leaders pit and Kyle Busch kept the race lead with a 0 tire stop.
When the race restarted Brad Keselowski was back to leading laps. At lap 37 it got wild as Paul Menard and Kyle Busch get together, made it four wide, but did not bring out the caution. As the race continued Chase Elliott was leading laps. With 12 laps left we got the first wreck of the night as Redd Sorenson got loose and going hard into the wall. Paul Menard and Kyle Busch wound up with damage in this caution and were the first cars to test out the five minute rule where if the car was fixed in time the race was over for the car. Both Cars made out to the track in time.
“Hopefully we can get in on speed,” said Reed Sorenson.
With under 10 laps left the race restarted and Chase Elliott was back leading laps. Chase was blocking the high and low lines from getting two wide for the race lead. In the final lap Brad Keselowski was going to get right behind Kevin Harvick to give him that one final push, but wound up doing a little wobble and wound up killing any extra momentum for Kevin Harvick as Chase picks up first Dayton Dual victory.
“Great way to start the season for us,” said Chase Elliott. Chase became the first diver since Dale Earnhardt back in 196 to start the season off with the Daytona 500 pole and Dual win.
“Sucked up really well,” said Jamie McMurray on this car.
“Ready to go for the 500,” said Brad Keselowski.
Right after the first race was over the second one was ready to begin. This race included Dale Earnhardt Jr., Danica Patrick, Michael Waltrip, and Clint Bowyer.
The early laps of this race saw Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Denny Hamlin lead the race. The it got to single line racing for many laps with Dale Earnhardt lading the laps. At lap 26 the competition caution came out with Dale as the race leader. The leaders pit and Ryan Blaney took the race lead as he did not take any tires. Denny Hamlin picked up a pit road violation by going through too many pit road boxes on exit.
The race continued with Dale leading more laps as Ryan Blaney in second just could not get the race lead. With around 18 laps left Jimmie Johnson gets three wide and with some help from David Ragan wind up causing a tire on the Ryan Blaney car to go down causing him to pit. With 13 laps left damage that Jimmie Johnson got from the incident was so bad the caution had to come out.
As the race restarted it was not long at all and Denny Hamlin was back up to second. Dale Jr. the kept the race lead until two laps to go as Denny Hamlin made it two wide which caused Dale Jr. to lose a few spots. Cars behind him including Austin Dillion and Clint Bowyer tired to get the race lead, but could not do it as Denny easily won the race.
“Great FedEx car,” said Denny Hamlin.
Dale Jr. stated that he would not done anything different as it pertains to the end of th race.
“Super impressed with this team,” said Clint Bowyer.
Timmy Hill and Reed Sorenson wound up being the two drivers that did not get to race in the Daytona 500.
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