Race: Can-Am Duels
\nTrack: Daytona International Speedway
\nLaps: 60
\nTime: 7:00 p.m. & 8:30 p.m. ET
\nTV: Fox Sports 1<\/p>\n
The final week of speedweeks has arrived. From here on out, for the cup series at least, it\u2019s all about racing.<\/p>\n
The racing will start this Thursday with the Can-Am Duels<\/strong> \u2013 two 60 lap qualifying races to determine the starting order for the 59th running of the Daytona 500<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Because they qualified first and second on Sunday, Chase Elliott<\/strong> and Dale Earnhardt Jr.<\/strong> have solidified their spots on the front row of the 500. They will lead each respective field to the green flag Thursday.<\/p>\n This is the third year in a row that the No. 24 team will be taking the green flag at Daytona.<\/p>\n The first duel of the day is headlined by the pair of Penske<\/strong>\u00a0Fords in Brad Keselowski<\/strong> and Joey Logano<\/strong>. The teammates made up two of the top three practice times set in the only practice session so far.<\/p>\n Aside from that, the first duel is lacking storylines compared to the second.<\/p>\n As for the second duel, Earnhardt Jr. will pace the field as he returns for his first competitive race since July 9, 2016. Junior missed the second half of the NASCAR<\/strong> season with concussion issues, but that clearly hasn\u2019t affected him thus far, albeit it being a small sample size.<\/p>\n Earnhardt Jr. is followed by another driver who is making his return to the big stage in Clint Bowyer<\/strong>, who spent last year with HScott Motorsports<\/strong>. He starts second in the duel in his first event with Stewart Haas Racing<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Move down just one more spot on the grid and find Denny Hamlin<\/strong>: the defending Daytona 500 champion. Race Info Race: Can-Am Duels Track: Daytona International Speedway Laps: 60 Time: 7:00 p.m. & 8:30 p.m. ET TV: Fox Sports 1 Chase Elliott headlines Can-Am Duels The final week of speedweeks has arrived. From here on out, for the cup series at least, it\u2019s all about racing. The racing will start this Thursday with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":315,"featured_media":984,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[160,485,61,52,148,14,244],"class_list":["post-981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-brad-keselowski","tag-can-am-duels","tag-chase-elliott","tag-dale-earnhardt-jr","tag-denny-hamlin","tag-nascar","tag-ty-dillon"],"modified_by":"Chris Soulsby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/315"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Penske Fords will show what they\u2019ve got<\/h2>\n
Earnhardt Jr. returns to competitive racing<\/h2>\n
\nAs for the rest of the field, Ty Dillon<\/strong> starts off his rookie of the year campaign in sixth, defending series champion Jimmie Johnson<\/strong> in seventh, and Michael Waltrip<\/strong> 17th as he prepares for the final race of his career.<\/p>\nLineups<\/h2>\n
\n
\n Can-Am Duel 1 Starting Lineup<\/strong><\/td>\n <\/td>\n Can-Am Duel 2 Starting Lineup<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Position<\/strong><\/td>\n Driver<\/strong><\/td>\n <\/td>\n Position<\/strong><\/td>\n Driver<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 1<\/td>\n Chase Elliott<\/td>\n <\/td>\n 1<\/td>\n Dale Earnhardt Jr.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 2<\/td>\n Brad Keselowski<\/td>\n <\/td>\n 2<\/td>\n Clint Boyer<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 3<\/td>\n Martin Truex Jr.<\/td>\n <\/td>\n 3<\/td>\n Denny Hamlin<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 4<\/td>\n Kevin Harvick<\/td>\n <\/td>\n 4<\/td>\n Kasey Kahne<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 5<\/td>\n Matt Kenseth<\/td>\n <\/td>\n 5<\/td>\n Ryan Newman<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 6<\/td>\n Kyle Busch<\/td>\n <\/td>\n 6<\/td>\n Ty Dillon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 7<\/td>\n Ricky Stenhouse Jr.<\/td>\n <\/td>\n 7<\/td>\n Jimmie Johnson<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 8<\/td>\n Daniel Suarez<\/td>\n <\/td>\n 8<\/td>\n Kyle Larson<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 9<\/td>\n Joey Logano<\/td>\n <\/td>\n 9<\/td>\n Ryan Blaney<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 10<\/td>\n Trevor Bayne<\/td>\n <\/td>\n 10<\/td>\n Erik Jones<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 11<\/td>\n Paul Menard<\/td>\n <\/td>\n 11<\/td>\n Kurt Busch<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 12<\/td>\n Jamie McMurray<\/td>\n <\/td>\n 12<\/td>\n Danica Patrick<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 13<\/td>\n Aric Almirola<\/td>\n <\/td>\n 13<\/td>\n Austin Dillon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 14<\/td>\n Landon Cassill<\/td>\n <\/td>\n 14<\/td>\n A.J. Allmendinger<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 15<\/td>\n Matt DiBenedetto<\/td>\n <\/td>\n 15<\/td>\n Michael McDowell<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 16<\/td>\n Chris Buescher<\/td>\n <\/td>\n 16<\/td>\n David Regan<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 17<\/td>\n Brendan Gaughan<\/td>\n <\/td>\n 17<\/td>\n Michael Waltrip<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 18<\/td>\n Cole Whitt<\/td>\n <\/td>\n 18<\/td>\n Elliott Sadler<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 19<\/td>\n Reed Sorenson<\/td>\n <\/td>\n 19<\/td>\n D.J. Kennington<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 20<\/td>\n Joey Gase<\/td>\n <\/td>\n 20<\/td>\n Jeffrey Earnhardt<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 21<\/td>\n Corey LaJoie<\/td>\n <\/td>\n 21<\/td>\n Timmy Hill<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"