NASCAR
Bubba Wallace, Austin Cindric Win Duels at Daytona, 500 Field Set
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The starting grid is now set for the 67th Running of the Daytona 500. Bubba Wallace and Austin Cindric were the two winners of Thursday’s Duel races. The final two Open cars to also make the show were JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier and Corey Lajoie from Rick Ware Racing.
The opening Duel race saw an early incident take out several fast cars. After making an errant move from third-place on lap 14, Chandler Smith pounded the outside wall. This ended the valiant underdog effort for Garage 66, and took out Helio Castroneves among others.
“What a night,” Wallace said. “The crowd is loud tonight. Appreciate you guys. I hope that was a good race. There we go.”
“Thanks to Tyler (Reddick). That was awesome to see two team cars work together that well and learn a lot for Sunday. Did a great job pushing me. Our McDonald’s Toyota Camry was really fast. Two different balances from being in the pack to being out front. Have some work to do there.”
“I’ve wanted one of these Duel wins for so long. All my buddies got one. Tyler got one last year. I was pissed off. I got one now. I’m good.”
Duel 2 would be a much calmer race, falling in the favor of Austin Cindric. The last open car to make Sunday’s race was Corey Lajoie’s No. 01. Cindric had to wait a few awkward moments to verify his win though, with a caution flying feet before the finish line. Cindric was just ahead of Erik Jones, who initially thought he had the win.
“I feel bad for Erik having to go all the way over there,” Cindric said. “They made a great move on the last lap there. Joey and I were sitting ducks with the middle lane fading there.”
“No, obviously, we had really fast Discount Tire Ford Mustang. Super proud of my team and everyone to go out here and execute. Thank you to Brian for letting me race. It was very difficult to maybe persuade that, but it was his birthday. This is a good birthday present for him.”
“Overall, proud of everybody at Team Penske getting lined up there, the execution of the cycle there. It’s cool, but there’s still a lot to go for the race. I feel so bad he had to drive all the way over there. That’s terrible.”
Cup cars will be on track again for practice, going green Friday at 5:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credits to Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
