DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Joey Logano and Aric Almirola each owned the lead of their Daytona 500 qualifying races with one lap remaining Thursday night.
And they both took the checkered flag still leading the field as they captured wins in the 150-mile preliminary events for Sunday’s big race (2:30 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports App) at Daytona International Speedway.
A year ago, Logano was in the same situation and tried to block another driver’s passing move, triggering a multi-car crash. He didn’t try to block Christopher Bell’s move to the outside Thursday and still hung on for the win in his race.
Logano might have had a different decision to make Sunday in the 500 where the moves often are more aggressive.
[Alex Bowman earns Daytona 500 pole, teammate Kyle Larson on front row]
“I can’t tell you what I’m going to do,” Logano said with a laugh. “I have lots of secrets. … I don’t know what I’m going to do if I’m being honest.”
In the second race, Almirola got fortunate as the lane next to him broke apart as Todd Gilliland ended up nearly sideways before saving the car.
Logano and Almirola were stoked with their wins, but maybe even more excited were Zane Smith and Conor Daly, who raced their way into the Daytona 500. Austin Hill and Chandler Smith were eliminated.
Takeaways from the races that set the Daytona 500 lineups:
Busch Frustrated Following Crash
Kyle Busch led 28 laps in his race but ended up crashed when Daniel Suarez unintentionally turned him while trying to push Busch in the draft.
“For the last two laps there before I wrecked, they started pushing,” Busch said about Suarez and Kyle Larson, who was behind Suarez. “I don’t see the sense in it. It really bothers me.”
Suarez pretty much took the blame and also said he was getting pushed by Larson.
“You never want that to happen,” Suarez said. “Two laps before that, they told me on the radio that we needed to start making time. … I thought the 8 [of Busch] was actually dragging brake because I was able to push him so easy.
“But I guess he wasn’t. I was getting so much energy from the 5 [of Larson] that I was just pushing too hard.”
Busch involved in crash
Kyle Busch spun out and hit the wall in Duel 2 at Daytona, causing a multi-car wreck.
Conor Daly Most Fortunate
Daly’s car was bouncing on the pace laps and he fell a lap down, making his Daytona 500 prospects looking slim.
But Travis Pastrana and Austin Hill both got caught up in the Busch-Suarez wreck, allowing Daly, whose team had improved his car, to finish well enough to make the Daytona 500.
Pastrana’s actually tagged Hill during the melee.
“The 62 [of Hill] was already spinning when I hit the 62,” Pastrana said. “We just didn’t get whoa’d up in time. Everybody else was already chaos in front of us.”
Daly, an IndyCar driver, has just four NASCAR races of experience and is driving for a team co-owned by Floyd Mayweather.
“We can’t ever deny a lucky situation,” Daly said. “I’ll take that any day.”
Full Duel highlights
Joey Logano won Duel 1 and Aric Almirola captured Duel 2 ahead of Sunday’s Daytona 500.
Chandler Smith, Hill blame themselves
Hill said with Daly’s troubles, he should never have been racing in the pack where he could get collected in a wreck.
“The 50 [of Daly] wasn’t even in the draft and he was multiple laps down — it was just dumb on my part,” said Hill, driving for Beard Motorsports.
“There’s no way around out. It was just stupid to even be up there. I was just trying to learn and seeing what we could do in the 500, and now we’re not even in it. … It stings.”
Kaulig Racing Chandler Smith’s speeding penalty on a pit stop ruined his Daytona 500 hopes in his race.
“I just got greedy,” Smith said. “At the end of pit road, I was like we were in a really good spot and it was really promising. I squeezed a little too much [on the throttle] before we got to the [speed] line. It’s on me.”
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass, and sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass.
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