Joey Logano (22) edges Christopher Bell (20) to win the first NASCAR Daytona 500 qualifying auto race Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. Finishing third is Ryan Blaney (12). (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)
AP
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.
Thursday saw two eventful Duel races ahead of the 2023 Daytona 500 on Sunday.
Among the highlights:
▪ Joey Logano took the Duel 1 win. The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series champion is among the best restrictor-plate racers on the circuit and proved it with the victory — even if he needed help from Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney to edge Christopher Bell down the final stretch.
▪ Aric Almirola notched the Duel 2 win, edging out Austin Cindric.
▪ Kyle Busch spun out from the front on the backstretch about halfway through the Duel 2 race. That ended his day — as well as ended the days of Austin Hill, Travis Pastrana and Riley Herbst. Busch on the wreck: “We were just getting pushed for two straight laps, and it didn’t want to hang on anymore. It overloaded on the left rear and spun out the wrong way on the straightaway. It just is what it is.”
▪ Conor Daly, the IndyCar star who didn’t participate in Wednesday’s single-car qualifying because of car troubles and who struggled early on Thursday, somehow raced his way into a Daytona 500 slot. He finished the race a lap down, but it ultimately didn’t matter because Hill (the other Open car he was competing with) was collected in the aforementioned wreck and didn’t finish.
▪ Zane Smith edged Chandler Smith in the first Duel race, which allowed Zane to qualify for Sunday. Chandler Smith largely ran a good race outside of incurring a devastating speeding on pit road penalty with about 40 laps to go. He spent most of the race a lap down because of that.
▪ Chandler Smith and Hill did not qualify for the Daytona 500 on Sunday.
▪ Racing legends Travis Pastrana and Jimmie Johnson qualified on speed in Open cars on Wednesday, but they each learned a bunch from Thursday’s run. Johnson said he learned a lot about the Next Gen car in the race, specifically; the seven-time Cup Series champion hasn’t raced a Cup car in two years. Does he feel ready, though, for the Daytona 500? “Hell no,” Johnson said with a smile. “All I got is 70 laps now? I need a few more. Tomorrow and Saturday I’ll get some more laps, and I’ll be ready.”
▪ The front row of the Daytona 500 was established on Wednesday. Alex Bowman will sit on the pole, and his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Kyle Larson, will be P1 and P2, respectively. Bowman fell back early in the field; Larson competed for the win.
This story will be updated.
Alex Zietlow writes about NASCAR, Charlotte FC and the ways in which sports intersect with life in the Charlotte area for The Observer, where he has been a reporter since August 2022. Zietlow’s work has been honored by the N.C. and S.C. Press Associations, as well as the APSE, which awarded him with Top-10 finishes in the Beat Writing and Short Feature categories in its 2021 writing contest. He previously wrote for The Herald in Rock Hill from 2019-22.