Thursday afternoon the field would be officially set for the Daytona 500.
The first duel race would see Dale Earnhardt, Jr. lead the field in the pace laps but then drop to the rear after a practice accident that saw him go to a backup car.
Tony Stewart would lead the field to green and with all the questions looking for some answers it was finally time to just do what these drivers do best; race.
The drivers hadn’t raced a lap and Ryan Newman spun early after a light push from teammate Stewart. Newman was able to keep it off the wall and continue.
Paul Menard was in the lead with Mark Martin in second.
The drivers in this Duel who had to make in on time were Dave Blaney, Kevin Conway, Michael McDowell, JJ Yeley and David Gilliand.
As expected the two car tandems continued and while on the restart Menard was shuffled to the back Stewart and Martin were able to pull away.
Not for long though as Juan Pablo Montoya, Kasey, Kahne, Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth and Kevin Harvick ran the two down.
The leaders got strung out with Kenseth and Harvick leading the way both heading into green flag stops. With the laps winding down Kenseth was leading Harvick but with five laps to go Michael McDowell blew a engine.
This would close the field right back up with a green white checkered finish. McDowell engine troubles guaranteed he would not make the Daytona 500 field.
On the restart everyone was paired off and it was Busch and Smith who pulled away from the field. Smith tried to get around Busch but ran out of time.
Busch was two for two this season after winning the Budweiser Shootout on Saturday.
J.J. Yeley raced his way in along with Joe Nemechek and Bill Elliott.
Rest of the top 10 was Smith, Harvick, Kenseth, Kahne, Montoya, A.J., Martin, Menard and Newman.
In the second duel it was Jeff Gordon who would lead the field to green. Michael Waltrip, Todd Bodine, Derrick Cope, Brian Keselowski and Casey Mears all were racing each other in.
Waltrip was guaranteed a spot in after Elliott didn’t have to fall back on his qualifying time in the first race.
Rookie, Trevor Bayne would start next to Gordon in his first career Duel.
Gordon moved up to help Bayne but Bayne was unable to stay onto Gordon and the two dropped back. On the third lap of the race Mears who was going to have to race his way in lost his second engine of the week.
Mears would not make the Daytona 500.
The racing settled down as the leaders paired up two by two, but Joey Lognao brought out the first caution for an accident.
He went for a ride through the tri-oval and hit the inside wall hard. Logano would be out of the race.
The field traded leaders from Gordon, Carl Edwards and Clint Bowyer. Caution waved with 20 laps to go, Brad Keselowski took a spin through the field.
The field was brought back together with Gordon leading and rookie Bayne in second.
With 14 laps to go Denny Hamlin got squeezed and had a cut tire and went for a slide bring out the caution.
With less than laps to go Todd Bodine got loose and took out Steve Wallace. Wallace is guaranteed a spot in the Daytona 500 but Bodine is not.
In the final lap of the race Gordon and Bayne were trying to make it back up front but Gordon got loose and bounced off the wall.
Bayne bounced off of Gordon and spun down and took out David Ragan.
Jeff Burton won the race and Keselowski with the help of his brother Brad Keselowski made the Daytona 500.
The rest of the top 10 were Bowyer, Waltrip, Kyle Busch, Keselowski, Jamie McMurray, Keselowski, Hamlin, Martin Turex, Jr. and Edwards.
Next up is the Daytona 500 at 12 ET on FOX.
Photo:nascar.com
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