Chase Elliott navigated his way to a thrilling victory in the America 250 Florida Duel 2 at Daytona International Speedway on Thursday, February 12.
The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion from Dawsonville, Georgia, led nine of the 60 scheduled laps in the Daytona Duel 2 where he started in fourth place and spent the entire event battling towards the front. Following a late cycle of green-flag pit stops that commenced with 16 laps remaining, Elliott executed his race-winning pass on Carson Hocevar with eight laps remaining.
From there, Elliott used the draft and push from Hocevar to fend off the latter and the field approaching the frontstretch to return to Victory Lane in a Daytona Duel event for the first time in eight years.
Before the start of the second Duel event, Chase Briscoe, who achieved a front row starting spot for the 2026 Daytona 500, and teammate Denny Hamlin, the latter of whom posted the fourth-fastest qualifying lap during Wednesday’s single-car qualifying session, occupied the front row.
When the green flag waved and the second Duel event commenced, Chase Briscoe, who opted to start from the outside lane, rocketed ahead through the frontstretch before transitioning to the inside lane and passing teammate Denny Hamlin for the lead entering the first two turns. As the field fanned out and raced in two-by-two formation, Briscoe maintained the lead for a full circuit before returning to the frontstretch and leading the first lap.
Both Briscoe and Hamlin managed to slightly break away from a stacked field that had fanned out to three lanes over the next four laps, with Briscoe maintaining a single-file lead over Hamlin. Behind, teammates Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson dueled against one another in front of Christopher Bell and Ty Gibbs, the latter of whom are teammates to Briscoe and Hamlin, while Erik Jones was trying to mount a charge from a third drafting lane towards the outside wall that included BJ McLeod.
Through the first of 10 scheduled laps, Briscoe continued to lead in front of Hamlin. Meanwhile, Elliott, Larson, Jones, Gibbs, Bell, Austin Cidric, McLeod and Michael McDowell were racing in close-quarters competition in the top-10 mark. Behind, Zane Smith, rookie Connor Zilisch, Ty Dillon, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Josh Berry, Anthony Alfredo, Todd Gilliland, Carson Hocevar, Tyler Reddick, JJ Yeley and Riley Herbst followed suit, respectively, while Justin Allgaier, who strategically drifted to the rear of the field to preserve his entry, occupied the final spot on the track in 22nd place.
Just past the Lap 15 mark, Briscoe and Hamlin retained the top-two spots, respectively, as both continued to race in front of two-stacked packs, led by Elliott and Larson, while Jones, Gibbs, Bell and Cindric trailed behind. By the time the event reached the Lap 20 mark, all 22 starters were separated by nearly two seconds from one another as Briscoe maintained a steady lead.
Then, before Lap 22, the leader Briscoe went in defensive mode as Hamlin was pinned in a three-wide action with Elliott and Ty Dillon entering the frontstretch. As Elliott tried to mount a charge from the outside lane, being pinned in the middle of a three-wide battle with Ty Dillon and Hamlin stalled Elliott’s progress. As a result, Hamlin retained second place behind Briscoe while Elliott managed to maintain pace as the lead competitor from the outside lane. Elliott would then return to battle teammate Larson for third place before he started to challenge Hamlin for the runner-up spot with drafting help from Dillon and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on Lap 23.
At the halfway mark of the Daytona Duel 2, on Lap 30, Briscoe was leading ahead of two-stacked lanes that were led by Hamlin and Elliott, while Ty Dillon, Larson, Stenhouse, Bell, McDowell, Alfredo, and Gibbs followed suit in the top 10, respectively. By then, all 22 starters were separated by more than a second. In addition, Alfredo was in a prime position to claim a Daytona 500 starting berth based on being the highest-running open competitor on the track while his open rivals, McLeod and Yeley, were racing at the tail end of the field.
Two laps later, the second Duel event had its first lead change as Ty Dillon received drafting help from Stenhouse to lead a lap for himself from the outside lane. Not long after, Riley Herbst received a huge push from Yeley to nearly rocket to the front from a third-drafting lane towards the outside wall. Herbst, Dillon and Elliott then engaged in a tight three-wide formation in front of the field through the frontstretch as Briscoe reassumed the lead during the next lap.
With 25 laps remaining, Briscoe was racing with the lead in front of a side-by-side battle that involved Elliott and Ty Dillon while Hamlin and Stenhouse followed suit amid the draft. Larson, McDowell, Alfredo, Bell and Gibbs were scored in the top 10 while Herbst drifted back to 13th.
Five laps later, Ty Dillon managed to lead another lap for himself over Briscoe after Briscoe had spent a bulk of the event racing in defensive mode through every lane, straightaway, and turn. Dillon was receiving aggressive drafting help from Stenhouse on the outside lane as the former would then muscle ahead of Briscoe exiting the frontstretch with 19 laps remaining. McDowell would then receive a strong push from Alfredo to lead through the backstretch. By the next lap, McDowell was leading ahead of Dillon, Alfredo, Stenhouse, Connor Zilisch and Herbst while Briscoe dropped to seventh.
Then, with 16 laps remaining, green flag pit stops commenced as Briscoe, Elliott, Hamlin, Erik Jones and BJ McLeod peeled off the racetrack to pit, primarily for fuel. Back on the track, Alfredo assumed the lead before he, along with Chevrolet teammates McDowell, Dillon, Stenhouse and Larson, pitted. Amid the latest pit stops, Zilisch assumed the lead before he pitted by himself during the next lap.
With 13 laps remaining, Herbst, who led the previous lap, led nearly the rest of the field that included Reddick, Cindric, Zane Smith, Bell, Hocevar, Gilliland, Berry and Ty Gibbs to pit road under green. At the conclusion of the pit stops, Allgaier, who has yet to pit, was leading by a large margin while Reddick emerged as the highest-running competitor that pitted over the rest of the field.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, the aggressiveness within the lead pack ignited as various competitors bumped and executed aggressive driving amid the draft. The competitor who was in front of the pack was Reddick moments before he was overtaken by Hocevar and Elliott after Reddick had no drafting help. Through the backstretch, multiple competitors that included Hamlin, Elliott and McDowell overtook Reddick as Elliott executed an aggressive move beneath Hocevar to lead the next lap.
With eight laps remaining, Elliott got underneath Hocevar from the middle lane and exited the frontstretch to assume the lead. By the time the field navigated through the first two turns, Elliott was leading while Cindric, Hamlin and Hocevar all battled for second place in three lanes and in front of three-stacked lanes. Amid repeated challenges from Hamlin and Hocevar from the draft and through both the straightaways and turns, Elliott maintained the lead with five laps remaining.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Elliott remained in the lead ahead of Hocevar, Larson, McDowell and Stenhouse as nearly the entire field had migrated towards racing in single-line formation towards the outside wall. Through the first two turns and the backstretch, Hocevar reeled in on Elliott’s rear bumper, but he could not execute any runs with no drafting help forming behind him. With no drafts formulating, Elliott managed to fend off Hocevar and the field to claim the checkered flag.
With the victory, Elliott joins Buddy Baker, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Sterling Marlin, David Pearson, Fireball Roberts and Tony Stewart as three-time winners of The Duel at Daytona. In addition, Elliott recorded his first Daytona Duel victory since 2018, and he recorded the 17th Duel victory for Hendrick Motorsports and the 54th overall for the Chevrolet nameplate.
As added bonuses of winning the second Duel event, Elliott was awarded 10 bonus points and the fourth-place starting spot for this year’s 68th running of the Daytona 500. This upcoming Sunday, Elliott will attempt to become the 44th competitor to win the Daytona 500.
“That was a great way to get the blood pumping, for sure, on a Thursday night,” Elliott said on the frontstretch on FS1. “There was a lot going on. Those last handful, really ever since we came off of pit road after the [pit] cycle, we were getting after it. It was a lot of fun. Had some great support there. Carson [Hocevar] did a great job helping me to control those lanes, helping get Team Chevy to Victory Lane tonight. So certainly, I owe him an appreciation for just sticking with it and also pushing me well. It’s really easy to get people out of control. Good night. Looking forward to Sunday.”
Amid Elliott’s Duel victory, Anthony Alfredo initially achieved his mission of qualifying for the Daytona 500 by being the highest-finishing open competitor in 17th place. During the post-race inspection process, however, Alfredo and his No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet team were disqualified due to NASCAR discovering both a loose transaxle cooling hose and an improper driver cooling hose from the entry. This demoted Alfredo to the tail end of the final running order in 22nd place.
As a result, BJ McLeod, who finished one spot behind Alfredo in 18th place but whose entry passed the post-race inspection process, was awarded a Daytona 500 starting spot for the 2026 season. The late outcome has enabled McLeod and his No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet team to make the Daytona 500 for a sixth time, with McLeod set to make his first appearance in the event since 2023.
Meanwhile, Alfredo joins JJ Yeley, the latter of whom ended up 21st in the final running order, as the two open competitors from the second Duel event who did not qualify for this year’s Daytona 500.
Carson Hocevar finished 0.065 seconds behind Elliott in the runner-up spot on the track. Kyle Larson, Michael McDowell, and Christopher Bell finished in the top five while Josh Berry, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Todd Gilliland, Ty Gibbs and Denny Hamlin completed the top 10, respectively. Notably, Chase Briscoe, who led a race-high 38 laps but could not contend for the victory due to having a slow pit service for fuel in the closing laps, ended up in 20th place.
The second Duel event featured 12 lead changes for 10 different leaders, and no cautions. In addition, all but one starter finished on the lead lap.
Results:
1. Chase Elliott, nine laps led
2. Carson Hocevar, one lap led
3. Kyle Larson
4. Michael McDowell, three laps led
5. Christopher Bell
6. Josh Berry
7. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
8. Todd Gilliland
9. Ty Gibbs
10. Denny Hamlin
11. Erik Jones
12. Tyler Reddick, one lap led
13. Riley Herbst, one lap led
14. Zane Smith
15. Connor Zilisch, one lap led
16. Ty Dillon, three laps led
17. Austin Cindric
18. BJ McLeod
19. Chase Briscoe, 38 laps led
20. Justin Allgaier, two laps led
21. JJ Yeley, three laps down
22. Anthony Alfredo – Disqualified, one lap led
With the starting lineup for this year’s 68th running of the Daytona 500 officially set, the main event is scheduled to occur this Sunday, February 15, which will also mark the official start of the NASCAR Cup Series’ 78th year of competition. The event’s coverage is slated to occur at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM and HBO MAX.
