DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott both made trips to victory lane at Daytona International Speedway on Thursday night.
Blaney scored the victory in the first Can-Am Duel qualifying race, while Elliott, of Dawsonville, Georgia, held off a late charge from Kevin Harvick to win the second qualifier, as the starting field was set for Sunday’s 60th running of the Daytona 500.
Not content to play second fiddle to his teammates yet again, Team Penske’s newest team member Blaney bested Joey Logano to win the opening qualifying race, securing a second-row start in the “Great American Race.”
Blaney put a move on Logano just before the final caution with two laps to go and then held him off on the ensuing restart with push from Darrell Wallace, Jr. for his first-ever win Daytona victory.
Logano edged Wallace for second. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. came home in third, with Kurt Busch in fifth.
Blaney’s victory gives Team Penske their second victory of Speedweek after Brad Keselowski’s victory in last Sunday’s Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona. So far, the three Team Penske cars have led 106 of the 138 laps contested in the Clash and Can-Am Duel races.
“It’s nice to get the year started off well,” said Blaney. “It’s not the (Daytona) 500. You never know what can happen on Sunday. We came close in (last Sunday’s) Clash, and I didn’t make a good move and I kind of lost that race.
“I thought all three of our cars were really fast, myself, Brad and Joey. I thought we were able to really control the whole race pretty much. We saw that in the Clash, the 2 (Keselowski) was able to control it, Joey was able to control it. I was kind of the middle. We had a set plan to try to work with each other the best we can. I think we do that great as a whole organization.”
Blaney took his shot his on Logano and Keselowski in last Sunday’s Clash, but couldn’t make the move stick – something that was on his mind as he contemplated the same move on Thursday.
“That’s the same spot I made the move in the Clash and it didn’t work. Almost didn’t work tonight,” said Blaney. “I didn’t really want to make my move right there because it didn’t work. It really shouldn’t have worked. I was trying to plot where to do the move better.
“I was thinking about that all week after it didn’t work in the Clash. That was not the spot I wanted to do it. I was coming with such a head of steam, I had to turn left or run the (Logano) over.
Thursday’s race started out as a near carbon copy of Sunday’s Clash, with the Penske trio hooking up early as the front row starters Alex Bowman and Jimmie Johnson dropped out of line before the end of lap one.
Just eight laps into the race, Johnson spun coming off the tri-oval after cutting down a left-front tire, collecting Aric Almirola and Daniel Suarez. It was second straight destroyed race car for Johnson, who crashed out of Clash. Both Johnson and Almirola will have to go to back-up cars for the Daytona 500.
Up front, Logano continued to lead with Blaney and Keselowski behind, with the entire field falling in line single file.
Another caution flag waved on lap 40 as Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. took the air off of William Byron’s Camaro, putting him a spin. Logano continued to lead through the restart.
With two laps to go, Blaney made his move for the lead and ducked out of line, pulling alongside Logano on the inside. As Logano moved down to try and side-draft off of Blaney, Keselowski followed, opening up the outside line to McMurray.
As Murray stuck the nose of his no. 1 Camaro to the inside, Keselowski came back up into the outside line and clipped the front of McMurray’s car, turning Keselowski into the wall.
As the rest of the field dodged Keselowski’s Ford, Blaney inched ahead of Logano as the caution came out, ending up scored as the leader as the field lined up for an overtime finish.
Coming to the line for green-white-checkered, Blaney surged ahead on the inside with a push from Wallace and was able to slide up in front of Logano to lead the opening lap. Wallace fought back on the inside and Blaney came back down to pick him up as the field came to the white flag.
Blaney managed to pull ahead on the backstretch on the final lap as Wallace looked for an opening, but lost momentum trying to hold off Logano coming off turn four, allowing Logano to barely edge him for second at the line.
It was the second runner-up finish in less than a week for Logano, who finished behind Keselowski in last Sunday’s Clash.
“I thought we all worked really well together,” Logano said of the domination of the Team Penske Fords. “Team Penske cars were doing a good job, being able to control the race. Team orders are, as you know, you work together as much as you can, then you race each other for the win. So you know it’s coming.
“Surprised where Blaney made the move to pass me there, because that’s the same place he did it in the Clash. Didn’t work for him in the Clash. I was kind of not thinking he would do it there. I was kind of a Lone Ranger trying to get the 31 to pull up to me. Darrell did a great job pushing Blaney. As soon as they went, they were hooked going.”
Wallace, who is making his Daytona 500 debut in Sunday, was happy to be able to push his friend Blaney to victory.
“That last restart, I was pretty proud of Ryan for taking the bottom there, stop doing all that team stuff,” said Wallace. “Logano didn’t like it. I gave Ryan a good shot there. I think I gave him too big of a shot. But it was a good race back to the line. I just moved up a little bit too late. Joey and I said we both would have wrecked if I went up any higher at the end.
“All in all, came home third. It’s a good start for our Daytona 500.”
In the second Can-Am Duel, Chase Elliott raced to his second straight qualifying race win, putting his No. 9 Chevrolet on the second row for Sunday’s Daytona 500.
Elliott surged past Denny Hamlin on lap 27 and led the rest of the way, holding off a hard-charging Kevin Harvick by a car length at the line.
Erik Jones rallied from an earlier spin to finish third, followed by Clint Bowyer in fourth and Kyle Busch in fifth.
Elliott proved to be the bright spot of the night for Hendrick Motorsports – earning team owner Rick Hendrick his 15th Duel victory. Seven-time champion Johnson and rookie Byron both crashed out of the opening Duel race, while Daytona 500 pole sitter Alex Bowman opted to ride around to a 14th-place finish in the first Duel.
“We brought a lot of steam tonight,” Elliott said. “The one on Sunday is the one we want, the one that counts, the one that everybody is after. Obviously a lot of racing after that, too.
“This is an exciting event. Having the Duels I think is pretty cool. But, man, the kicker would be to have a good run Sunday. That’s where our focus is at.”
Like the opening Can-Am Duel race, the second 60-lap race started off a one team leading the way, with the Joe Gibbs Racing stable of Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Erik Jones ganging up on the field in the early laps.
But unlike the first Duel, the teammate partnership didn’t last in the second race, as Hamlin abandoned his teammates to pick up a surging inside line, hanging Busch and Jones out to dry on the outside.
The move almost turned disastrous for Jones, who would spin off the front bumper of Elliott on lap 13, bringing out the race’s only caution. Matt DiBenedetto and Kyle Larson were also caught up in the wreck, but Jones was able to continue on.
Harvick briefly held the lead on the ensuing restart before Hamlin battled back to reclaim the top spot, with Harvick and Paul Menard falling back in line running second and third.
By lap 25, Elliott had rallied back to move into second place, then ducked under Hamlin with a power move to take the lead away on lap 27.
Over the remaining 30 laps, Elliott held the top spot as Hamlin and Harvick followed single-file looking for an opening. Finally, with two laps to go, Harvick moved to the inside, forcing Elliott to go low to block, leaving Hamlin to fall back through the field.
Over the final lap, Harvick tried the high side and the middle as Elliott worked the entire track to block. Harvick’s teammate Clint Bowyer stepped up to try to push Harvick to the front, but soon found themselves holding off a resurgent Erik Jones, who rallied to challenge the leaders on the inside. Jones made it alongside of Bowyer and just edged ahead at the stripe to claim the third spot, as Bowyer came home fourth.
“The 21 (Paul Menard) and 14 (Bowyer) got side by side over there and Clint got to my bumper but my car was so loose that I didn’t want to pull it really hard to the right because it felt like it would spin out all night,” Harvick said. “We definitely need to work on the handling on our Ford to make it better.”
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Daytona International Speedway – Daytona Beach, FL
Can-Am Duel Race 1 – February 15, 2018
1. Ryan Blaney
2. Joey Logano
3. Darrell Wallace, Jr.
4. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.
5. Kurt Busch
6. Ryan Newman
7. David Ragan
8. Daniel Suarez
9. Jamie McMurray
10. Chris Buescher
11. Ty Dillon
12. Brendan Gaughan
13. Jeffrey Earnhardt
14. Alex Bowman
15. Justin Marks
16. Brad Keselowski
17. David Gilliland
18. William Byron
19. Jimmie Johnson
20. Aric Almirola
Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 08 Mins, 25 Secs. Average Speed: 138.124 MPH Margin of Victory: 0.207 Seconds
Caution Flags: 4 for 14 laps
Lead Changes: 4 among 3 drivers: 0; J. Logano 1-11; J. Marks(i) 12; J. Logano 13-57; R. Blaney 58-63.
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Daytona International Speedway – Daytona Beach, FL
Can-Am Duel Race 2 – February 15, 2018
1. Chase Elliott
2. Kevin Harvick
3. Erik Jones
4. Clint Bowyer
5. Kyle Busch
6. Austin Dillon
7. Paul Menard
8. Trevor Bayne
9. Denny Hamlin
10. A.J. Allmendinger
11. Michael McDowell
12. Martin Truex, Jr.
13. Kasey Kahne
14. Danica Patrick
15. D.J. Kennington
16. Corey LaJoie
17. Gray Gaulding
18. Mark Thompson
19. Matt DiBenedetto
20. Kyle Larson
Time of Race: 00 Hrs, 49 Mins, 29 Secs. Average Speed: 181.879 MPH Margin of Victory: 0.081 Seconds
Caution Flags: 1 for 3 laps
Lead Changes: 6 among 4 drivers: D. Hamlin 1-13; G. Gaulding 14; K. Harvick 15; D. Hamlin 16; K. Harvick 17-22; D. Hamlin 23-26; C. Elliott 27-60.
WDUN will carry live MRN Radio coverage of Sunday's Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 from Daytona International Speedway beginning at 1:30 pm on 102.9 FM, AM 550 and streaming live on AccessWDUN.
