A Quick Recap of The Duels at Daytona

Adam Tropper - Staff Writer

After heavy showers Thursday afternoon, action in Daytona Beach continued as the lineup for the 2025 Daytona 500 was officially set. The process for this week is different than any other. Instead of just having a normal qualifying session, the time trials on Wednesday only decide two things; who will start on the front row on Sunday (Chase Briscoe & Austin Cindric), and two of the four non-chartered entries (or “open” cars) that are guaranteed a spot in the Great American Race (Martin Truex Jr. & Jimmie Johnson). Otherwise, everyone else has to earn their position through 60-lap (or 150-mile) sprint races. Being able to start at the front of the pack could in part determine whether or not you have a good performance on Sunday, so needless to say we saw a good amount of intensity tonight. On top of this, not every driver was locked into the main event going into the duals, with only 2* spots left up for grabs among 7 more “open” entries. Between wrecks and already another controversial finish, I’ll take you through everything that went down in this year’s Daytona Duels.

Duel 1:

Before anyone could even get into any type of rhythm, the first caution flag flew on lap 3 when Zane Smith cut a tire and hit the wall. Immediately, cars took to pit row to play the strategy game top off on fuel. We then go to lap 15, when an eight-car wreck occurred that saw huge impacts for both Justin Haley and Chandler Smith, who was running in 3rd place at the time of the wreck, changed lanes without knowing Haley was there, resulting in both of them hitting the Turn 1 wall hard. Unfortunately for Smith, he was attempting to race his way in as an open car for Garage 66, so they will be one of four DNQs for the weekend. 4-time Indianapolis 500 Champion Helio Castroneves was involved in the incident as well, but he will still race Sunday as the 41st entry due to the new and controversial world champion provisional. The second half of the race was relatively tame, and ultimately, Bubba Wallace emerged victorious in the duel. The “open” spot for Duel 1 went to Justin Allgaier & JR Motorsports, who will be making their Cup Series debut as an organization. Allgaier narrowly beat out JJ Yeley and his NY Racing team, who will now just barely miss being in the big show for the 2nd year in a row.

Duel 2:

Normally when chaos ensues in the first duel, the drivers in Duel 2 try to keep things clean. To their credit, they managed to do this for the first ⅔ of the event. Even though many were hesitant to make risky moves, Jimmie Johnson created a third lane and pushed teammate Erik Jones to the lead. The Legacy Motor Club duo held the top two spots on the leaderboard for a considerable portion of the race afterward. Eventually, we made it to green flag pit stops, and as a result, we saw the first pit road errors of the season. Denny Hamlin slid through his pit box and then continued to get a speeding penalty on pit road. Kyle Larson and John Hunter Nemechek received speeding penalties during this cycle as well. However, the penalties proved not to matter as only a few laps later, the caution came out for a multi-car incident between Brad Keselowski, Daniel Saurez, and others. 

The closing laps ended up resembling the close racing that Duel 1 provided, and as the field was coming to the checkered flag, another multi-car wreck unfolded in the tri-oval. Erik Jones just narrowly edged out Austin Cindric to the line, but Jones ended up making a premature celebration. Because a race ends at the time of caution, NASCAR had to look back a few hundred yards to determine the winner of the race. Ironically it was still a photo finish, but Cindric emerged victorious. While NASCAR officiating rightfully has received criticism over the years, this was the correct call according to the rulebook. Normally, the winner of a duel earns a starting position on the 2nd row. However, as previously mentioned, Cindric already qualified in 2nd place on Wednesday night, meaning his spot on row one was already guaranteed. Therefore, everyone in Duel 2 moves up a row and Erik Jones will still start the 500 in P3.

What’s Next:

The ARCA Menard’s Series, the Craftsman Truck Series, and the Xfinity Series will all hold their respective races throughout Friday and Saturday. By Sunday, all that’s left is the main event. Watch the 67th running of the Daytona 500 at 2:30 p.m. on FOX.