NASCAR
Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell Sweep Daytona Duels for Toyota
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The field for Sunday’s Great American Race is now set. After Tyler Reddick and Christopher Bell each went to victory lane in Thursday night’s Duels, we now know the entire grid for the 2024 Daytona 500.
Duel #1 was a largely clean and green event, until 10 laps remained. Daniel Hemric slammed on his brakes, causing stack-up that sent three past Daytona 500 winners spinning behind him. Involved in this incident was Jimmie Johnson, who needed to race his way in through this Duel.
Johnson’s night was not over yet though, with the No. 84 Toyota having to beat JJ Yeley heads up. Off of turn four, Johnson had a run to Yeley’s inside and just edged him out at the line.
Up front, it was Tyler Reddick making a last-lap move by Kyle Larson for the win. Thanks to this win, Reddick will start third on Sunday.
“Great way to start off the weekend,” Reddick said. “This thing is a beast, and it’s a great way to kick off a new product Monster’s got. Go out and get a hard tea and have a good time tonight, I know we are.”
“I’ve never been in a position like this before,” Jimmie Johnson said. “I have such a greater appreciation for everyone before me who’s tried to race their way in. Although there’s only six more cars, I know at one time there were many more. It’s stressful, very thankful that we got this Carvana Toyota in the race. I knew the first half of the race was going too easy, I knew we’d have a challenge thrown at us. We got it just in time.”
The ever-so-humble seven-time champion and Hall of Famer did acknowledge his opponent he sent packing home. “Hats off to JJ Yeley, he put up a heck of a fight, had a very competitive car. We were just in the right spot when the checkered fell.”
Duel 2 meanwhile also started off calmly, but had a major field-clearing crash in its closing laps as well. Following a round of pit stops, a push from Kyle Busch sent Ryan Blaney sideways on the frontstretch. Nearly a dozen cars were collected in this carnage, with Blaney taking the biggest impact.
Superspeedway aces Michael McDowell and Denny Hamlin were the two leaders for the short sprint to the finish. A major late block thrown by the 11 took the 34 out of contention. Hamlin held serve until the last lap, when Christopher Bell went storming on by for the win. Toyotas swept the Daytona Duels, with both winners leading only the final lap.
“The plate races, I don’t know what to think of them,” Bell said. “Me and (crew chief) Adam Stevens have a running joke, I always say these races are 100 percent luck. I know that that’s not true, but it seems like we’ve struggled to get to the end of these things. I know I’ve been a common denominator in a lot of the wrecks. Feels good to do everything right today.”
The last Daytona 500 starting spot also went to Kaz Grala, who narrowly beat out BJ McLeod.
“Our first lap on track was today, really,” Grala said. “This week is just so crazy. It’s always so stressful coming here as an Open car and I’ve had terrible luck on Wednesdays. I haven’t been able to have a single relaxed Thursday yet, and today was certainly no exception. That was a pretty intense battle there coming down to the last couple of laps. It was way closer than I wanted it to be, but it was great racing with BJ and David Ragan. Everybody racing clean and pushing hard, so that was cool. I’m happy to get this No. 36 Ruedebusch Ford into the Daytona 500 because Front Row Motorsports worked so hard yesterday to get this car ready and in shape for today and they did a great job. We obviously had great speed, so I’m excited to see what we can do on Sunday.”
Cup cars will be back on track at Daytona for Friday practice, at 5:30 p.m. ET. The Daytona 500 will go green Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credits to Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
