Coble: Logano, Elliott rely on teamwork to win Daytona 500 qualifying races
Joey Logano won under caution with Penske Racing teammate Ryan Blaney following in second in the first of two America 250 Florida Duels Thursday night at the Daytona International Speedway.
Chase Elliott celebrates in Victory Lane at the Daytona International Speedway Thursday night after winning the second America 250 Florida Duel that helped determine half of the starting lineup for Sunday's Daytona 500.
Starting lineup for Sunday's Daytona 500 set
DAYTONA BEACH – If Thursday night’s America 250 Florida Duels taught NASCAR fans anything, it’s superspeedway racing continues to be a team sport.
Joey
Logano won the first 150-mile qualifying race with Penske Racing teammate Ryan
Blaney ran as his wingman in second place, while Chase Elliott won the second
Duel with Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar in second, fellow Hendrick
Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson in third and Spire’s Michael McDowell in
fourth. Spire has a strong technical alliance with Hendrick.
The races
set the final 38 spots in the 40-car lineup for Sunday’s Daytona 500 (2:30
p.m., FOX) at the Daytona International Speedway.
Kyle
Busch won the pole position on Wednesday night, while Chase Briscoe will start
on the outside pole. By winning the first Duel, Logano will start third in the
Great American Race, while Briscoe will roll off in fourth.
The only
drama was among the non-charter teams. Both races had three teams vying for one
spot. Casey Mears made it from the first race after Corey LaJoie was swept into
a five-car crash on the final lap. BJ McLeod got the last one in the second
Duel after Anthony Alfredo’s finish was disqualified after NASCAR found two
hoses – one to a cooler for the rear axle; the second to the driver’s cooling
system – that weren’t secured.
The Duels
were diabolically different. The first had three crashes that involved 11 of 23
cars. The second was caution free.
Logano
and Blaney were safe from the calamity by keeping their Fords in front of it.
Logano led 15 of the last 16 laps – all with Blaney in tow.
“I think
what you see there is some good teamwork,” Logano said. “I think you seen RFK (Roush/Fenway/Keselowski)
all get in line together. They were pretty committed to each other. Ryan and I
kind of had our thing going on.
“I was
kind of working with the 12 most of the time. Just ’cause it happened to be
that way. Just worked out that way. Ryan did a great job. There’s always a plan
when the race starts, everyone says, The plan is the plan until lap one.”
Busch was
running eighth in the middle of a scrum with nine laps remaining. Since his
spot on the starting grid was ensured, he dropped out of line, which proved to
be fortunate since there was a five-car crash with three laps remaining in
regulation, and another five-car pileup on the third lap of overtime that ended
the race.
Austin
Dillon wound up third, followed by Keselowski in fourth and John Hunter Nemechek
in fifth.
Busch
settled for 18th place, but his Chevrolet was unscathed.
The best
way to make speed was for cars to lock themselves bumper-to-bumper. The front
car punched a hole in the air, while the trailing cars “pushed” the train of
cars in the slipstream. The draft of cars is much quicker than a single car,
since it’s also limited by a rear spoiler that pushes the rear deck down for
added traction.
“Everyone’s
push-ability seems awful,” Logano said. “I didn’t see any car that was taking a
push that was comfortable on the straightaways. A lot of cars were just squirrelly,
right? I haven’t watched replays yet, but all the wrecks happened on the
straightaway. I’m assuming that’s from pushes more times than not. I’m assuming
everyone’s push-ability is weak.”
The
second Duel was less stressful. It also was a race for Chevrolet to flex its mechanical
muscle. Elliott said his race didn’t seem to have as much pent-up energy as the
first.
“I think
that was large in part because it got pretty aggressive and fast at different
times, which was really good,” he said. “A lot of times you run this race, it’s
not the craziest thing, the energy level is not super high, the pace doesn’t
get super-fast. The cars were pretty unstable at different points in time.
Even in those closing laps when Carson was giving me some of those big shoves, I
thought he was doing it really well. He was pushing me in the right places at
the right times. Honestly, he was getting me out of shape really in places that
I wasn’t really expecting to be kind of on edge. I could see the cars being out
of control.”
Christopher
Bell finished behind the four Chevrolets in fifth.
Like
Busch in the first race, Briscoe played safe and dropped back to a 19th-place
finish keep his Toyota in one piece for Sunday’s race.
With
Busch and Briscoe on the front row and Logano and Elliott on Row 2, the rest of
the Top 10 starters will be Blaney and Hocevar in the third row, Dillon and Larson
in the fourth row and Keselowski and McDowell in Row 5.
