Toyota makes up for qualifying woes as Tyler Reddick and Christopher Bell win duels for Toyota. Jimmie Johnson and Kaz Grala race their way into Sunday’s Daytona 500.
The Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona allowed Toyota to silence the doubters about their speed for the Daytona 500. Tyler Reddick makes a last-lap pass on Kyle Larson to win the first duel. Christopher Bell similarly led only one lap, the last one to with the second. Toyota regularly has not had great qualifying speed. In their seventeen years in the Cup Series, Toyota has never won the pole for the race. While never winning the pole, Toyota has nine victories in the duels. The doubters have been silenced and Toyota fans need not worry for Sunday.
Open Cars battle for a spot in the Daytona 500:
Both Duels at Daytona left the viewers with incredible battles for the four cars trying to make the 500. In Duel #1 we saw seven-time champion and now hall of famer Jimmie Johnson and JJ Yeley took it to the start-finish line in their battle for a spot.
Johnson, was caught up in a wreck on lap forty-nine but escaped with minimal damage. Yeley on the last lap, making a move to the outside with momentum on Ross Chastain, left the door open for Johnson to push Chastain. Johnson finished twelfth while Yeley finished sixteenth.
BOSS MAN STILL GOT MOVES 👏
pic.twitter.com/MWB7PlrTOu— LEGACY MOTOR CLUB (@LEGACYMotorClub) February 16, 2024
In Duel #2, it was a battle between Kaz Grala and BJ McLeod. Grala, racing for Front Row Motorsports, put Michael McDowell on the front row last night in qualifying. The #38 Mustang over-revved the engine on the out lap in qualifying. The #38 team changed the engine overnight and got it ready for the duel.
McLeod, an independent team with no sponsor, a Hendrick Motorsports pit crew, and an ECR Chevrolet engine took his all-black Chevrolet Camaro as high as third in the duel. Contact in the lap forty-nine wreck would cut a tire down and small damage but the #78 pit crew got McLeod back in the race to battle for a spot. The two drivers would make it three wide on the last lap coming out of turn three, with Grala finishing twelfth and McLeod fourteenth. Lots of fight from the team with only nine full-time employees.
That 7️⃣8️⃣ is battling out there! pic.twitter.com/4MjCzzjAVu
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 16, 2024
Duels at Daytona leave wrecked racecars for Busch, Blaney:
But the Duels at Daytona were not without some carnage. In the first race, coming to pit road, eventual winner Tyler Reddick got into the side of Toyota teammate Ty Gibbs, scraping off the yellow Goodyear lettering on his tires. 2018 Daytona 500 winner Austin Dillon had to take two right-side tires after he scrapped his too. Duel #1 would see Daniel Hemric slam into the wall and end his race early, along with last year’s 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. He would not get his car fixed and DNF.
The big one would happen in the second Duel at Daytona. On lap forty-seven, a bump from Brad Keselowski would send Kyle Busch into the bumper of Ryan Blaney, starting a chain reaction that would collect two other cars, Noah Gragson and Riley Herbst. All drivers involved were checked and released from the care center.
Big wreck. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/SrRXBwkwW8
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 16, 2024
Starting lineup for the 2024 Daytona 500:
From NASCAR.com. * denotes Non-Charter, Open, Car
| POSITION | CAR NO. | DRIVER | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 22 | Joey Logano | |
| 2 | 34 | Michael McDowell | |
| 3 | 45 | Tyler Reddick | |
| 4 | 20 | Christopher Bell | |
| 5 | 9 | Chase Elliott | |
| 6 | 2 | Austin Cindric | |
| 7 | 48 | Alex Bowman | |
| 8 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | |
| 9 | 77 | Carson Hocevar | |
| 10 | 42 | John H. Nemechek | |
| 11 | 43 | Erik Jones | |
| 12 | 21 | Harrison Burton | |
| 13 | 99 | Daniel Suárez | |
| 14 | 71 | Zane Smith | |
| 15 | 54 | Ty Gibbs | |
| 16 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | |
| 17 | 5 | Kyle Larson | |
| 18 | 24 | William Byron | |
| 19 | 17 | Chris Buescher | |
| 20 | 14 | Chase Briscoe | |
| 21 | 1 | Ross Chastain | |
| 22 | 51 | Justin Haley | |
| 23 | 84 | Jimmie Johnson* | |
| 24 | 23 | Bubba Wallace | |
| 25 | 41 | Ryan Preece | |
| 26 | 36 | Kaz Grala* | |
| 27 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | |
| 28 | 16 | AJ Allmendinger | |
| 29 | 7 | Corey LaJoie | |
| 30 | 60 | David Ragan* | |
| 31 | 38 | Todd Gilliland | |
| 32 | 4 | Josh Berry | |
| 33 | 3 | Austin Dillon | |
| 34 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | |
| 35 | 62 | Anthony Alfredo* | |
| 36 | 8 | Kyle Busch | |
| 37 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | |
| 38 | 15 | Riley Herbst | |
| 39 | 31 | Daniel Hemric | |
| 40 | 10 | Noah Gragson |
