Daytona 500: Ryan Blaney wins first Duel over Logano

The No. 12 Menards Ford held off his Penske teammate Joey Logano at the line by .207-seconds in the first qualifier for the Daytona 500.

"I can’t thank everyone at Menards and Peak enough for given me a really fast race car," Blaney said. "I thought our cars in the Clash and tonight, we were really, really good. Awesome what we have. Amazing speed. Hopefully, we can bring it home on Sunday.”

Darrell “Bubba” Wallace finished third followed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman, David Ragan, Daniel Suarez, Jamie McMurray and Chris Buescher.

Blaney led the final six laps for the win. The victory gives Blaney the third starting spot in the Great American Race on Sunday.

Bowman cautious while Johnson finds trouble

Alex Bowman took the high line entering Turn 1 and dropped off the point to 19th in an effort to save his car for the 500. Logano moved up to the lead followed by Suarez and Blaney after the first lap.

Logano maintained the point followed by Blaney, Johnson, Keselowski, Byron, McMurray, Suarez, Ty Dillon and Newman after two laps. Bowman rode around in 20th. With Johnson losing a car in the Clash, he also took a conservative approach and dropped into sixth with Byron in tow.

The field had completed Lap 8 when Johnson cut a right rear tire and spun in Turn 1. Johnson moved down a lane then spun back up into the No. 10 Ford of Aric Almirola. Suarez received right rear damage in the incident. 

“Tough way to start Speedweeks,” Johnson said. “I feel terrible for my race team for all their hard work. We'll take that backup (car) out. The car started to shake a little bit entering the tri-oval. That is why I pulled down. I was kind of shocked that I had the shake, and knew it was that soft tire shake coming from the right side.

“As I entered the tri-oval, it finally went flat and hooked me around and into to Aric, unfortunately. Terrible way to start, but thankful for all the support from Chevrolet, Lowes for Pros. We will pull out that next bullet and get ready."

Logano continued to lead the field followed by Blaney, Keselowski, McMurray, Stenhouse and Byron when they pitted on Lap 11. Logano and Blaney took fuel only and lined up first and second, respectively for the Lap 14 restart. Stenhouse ran third followed by Keselowski, Byron, Earnhardt, Ragan, Newman, Wallace and Gilliland.

The three Penske Fords led the outside line with Stenhouse attempting to gain momentum on the inside. By Lap 18, Stenhouse dropped to eighth while Newman moved up to fourth followed by Wallace, Buescher and McMurray. Dillon and Byron rounded out the top 10. 

“I’m going to try and work my way back up to the front again,” Stenhouse told the crew.

Logano led 19 of the first 20 laps. Blaney, Keselowski, Newman, Wallace, Buescher, McMurray, Dillon, Suarez and Kurt Busch completed the top 10.

The field moved into a single-file line with the front 14 cars. Bowman hung in the back with Gaughan and Gilliland coming to Lap 25.

Thirteen cars comprised the conga line over the next five laps with 7.3-seconds separating the first two packs. The first pack broke up with Stenhouse attempting to make the inside lane work again with help from Kurt Busch and Ragan.

Byron goes around

Logano led the field into Turn 1 when the second caution occurred when Byron spun after Stenhouse took the air off of the No. 24 Chevy on Lap 39. Byron hit the wall and retweeted to the garage.

"That was kind of the worst possible spot to get on my quarter panel and I just lost it," Byron said. "I just got sucked around-the air moved me around. Other than that, it was going pretty well before then.

"I hate it that we tore up a car but we will go to work and get ready for the 500. We were all kind of riding in a single-file line, and a couple of guys were trying to make the bottom work and just got sucked around."

Logano remained on the track with Blaney, Newman, Keselowski, Buescher, McMurray and Justin Marks while the rest of the field pitted on Lap 40. Wallace was the first driver off of pit road. The race returned to green with 18 laps remaining in the first Duel.

With a push from Newman, McMurray was able to make a run on the Penske Fords but Logano continued at the point.

After completing Lap 47, Stenhouse pulled out of 14th-place and took the air off of Gilliland to trigger the third caution. The No. 92 Ford went nose first into the wall. Logano led followed by Blaney, Keselowski, McMurray, Newman, Wallace, Suarez, Busch, Ty Dillon and Stenhouse.

Bowman, Earnhardt and Buescher pitted on Lap 48 as 16 cars remained on the lead lap.

Run to the finish

Logano took the high lane with nine laps remaining and pulled in front of Blaney entering Turn 1. McMurray went high and dropped back hoping for a push from Wallace. The Ganassi driver through better of it and pulled in behind the Penske Fords of Logano, Blaney and Keselowski with Wallace. Stenhouse took the low lane again and moved up alongside Kurt Busch, who was running ninth.

With three laps to go, Blaney moved to the inside of his teammate for the lead on the backstretch. As Keselowski attempted to move to the back of the No. 22 Ford, McMurray moved up to take the position and turned the No. 2 in the process. 

Blaney assumed the point followed by Logano, Wallace, Newman, Busch, Suarez, Ragan, Stenhouse, Buescher and Ty Dillon as the race when into overtime with 15 cars on the track. With an assist from Wallace, Blaney easily sailed off to the win.

“I had such a big run, I had to go under him or I would have run over him,” Blaney said. “I saw (Wallace) was third and I thought he would give me a good push. He did a great job all race.

“It’s nice to get the year started off well. It’s not the (Daytona) 500. You never know what can happen on Sunday. We came close in the Clash and I didn’t make a good move and I kind of lost that race. I learned a little bit and I thought about that forever. I thought we learned a little bit from our mistakes. It’s so nice to bring the 12 car back to victory lane. Hopefully, we can make it another one here on Sunday. That would be the one that counts.”