Joey Logano, Chase Elliott Claim Daytona Duel Wins
By David Morgan, Associate Editor
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The field is set.
Thursday night’s 60-lap Duel qualifying races finalized which drivers would be running in Sunday’s 68th edition of the Daytona 500 and which drivers would be headed home.
A pair of former champions captured wins in each of the Duels, with Joey Logano scoring the victory in what was a wild first Duel, followed up by Chase Elliott bringing home the hardware in Duel No. 2.
Logano gave the credit to his pit crew for putting him in position to capitalize as the race went into overtime. He was running ahead of his Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney down the backstretch when a crash broke out to bring the race to an early end.
He explained that Thursday night was all about learning what you could for Sunday before prophesying that if the wild nature of the first Duel race, which featured three cautions, continued into the Daytona 500, it could be something to watch.
“I think the Duels, there’s a few things you try to learn, right? You try to learn what your car is doing. You try to figure out the draft, which you can and can’t do,” said Logano.
“…I think the whole field has learned that pushing each other is pretty sketchy. I was thinking about it driving over here. Daytona 500 could be a total wreck-fest ’cause if you think about Duels, it’s a heat race, and everyone is like, Don’t tear up your car, get what you can out of it, but don’t crash.
“We wrecked a lot of stuff. That’s everyone not racing for the Daytona 500, so… Say a prayer. It’s going to be crazy.”
As is commonplace in the Duels, if one is chaotic, the other is much calmer and right on cue, that’s how the second Duel race played out.
Chase Briscoe, who will be starting on the outside of the front row for the Daytona 500, led the most laps in Duel No. 2 with 38 laps up front, but a miscue on pit road dropped him out of the running for the win, paving the way for Chase Elliott to get into position to capture the victory and did just that.
Elliott led all but one of the final 10 laps in the caution-free second Duel en route to the win, finishing just ahead of Carson Hocevar and his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson.
“A great way to get the blood pumping for sure on a Thursday night,” said Elliott. “There was a lot going on those last handful, really ever since we came off of pit road after the cycle, we were getting after it. It was a lot of fun. Had some great support there.
“Carson did a great job helping me control those lanes, helping get Team Chevy for Victory Lane tonight. Certainly, owe him an appreciation for just kind of sticking with it, also pushing me well. It’s real easy to get people out of control. So, appreciate that and its nice to get the NAPA Chevy a win.
“Not a 500. I’ve been here before and not the other one, so you have to kind of learn to take it a day at a time. Look, a great way to start the speed week for our team. Really proud of our effort, everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, the boss, from top to bottom. Their commitment and will to win, is pretty darn high.
“Proud to be a part of their team. Good night. Looking forward to Sunday.”
