The pied piper of Daytona scored the win in duel race No. 1 and Michael McDowell will have his chance to race for immortality on Sunday. Dale Earnhardt Jr. led all but 17 of the 60 laps to take home his fifth career Cam-Am Duel victory at Daytona International Speedway in his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, XFINITY Series and Camping World Truck Series head to Daytona International Speedway as Speedweeks continues culminating with the 58th edition of the Daytona 500 Sunday.
The two Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet's of the No. 4 driven by Kevin Harvick and No. 14 driven by Brian Vickers failed post-qualifying tech inspection after the track bars were found to be out of compliance with the Sprint Cup Series rule book.
Elliott will lead the field to the green flag for next Sunday's 58th running of the Great American Race, the Daytona 500. At 20 years, two months and 17 days, Elliott is the youngest Daytona 500 pole-sitter in NASCAR history.
After drawing the pole position for the Sprint Unlimited, the driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet hoped to start his quest for a third Daytona 500 victory with a strong performance in the 75-lap exhibition race. Those hopes were quickly dashed on lap 44.
Denny Hamlin opens the season in victory lane. The driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led 39 laps on his way to scoring the victory in the Sprint Unlimited at Daytona International Speedway. He overcame an early race incident with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to win the race.
"I think the most frustrating part of it for me was not to finish this first race back. But these guys have done so much and worked hard and gave me a great car. Not gonna get 'em tonight. We’ll have to get 'em in the Daytona 500."
Joey Logano found his way to the top of the charts. The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford was the fastest in the second practice session with a time of 45.934 and a speed of 195.933 mph. Brad Keselowski was second in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford with a time of 45.954 and a speed of 195.848 mph.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. opens the NASCAR season at the top of the charts in the first Daytona 500 practice. The driver of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 46.364 and a speed of 194.116 mph.
Crew chiefs drew their drivers' starting positions for the race on Friday -- the Sprint Unlimited (75 laps, 187.5 miles) is set for the green flag Saturday at 8:15 p.m. ET (FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Crew chief Chad Knaus landed the prime position for Jimmie Johnson, who will start from the pole position. Johnson has visited Victory Lane at the 2.5-mile track three times in his career.
Hendrick Motorsports has the all-time lead in NASCAR Cup Series poles (27), wins (31), top fives (105), top 10s (175) and laps led (2,473) on road courses.
The second stop of the summer “West Coast swing” brings the NASCAR Cup Series to its annual visit at Sonoma Raceway, located in California’s wine country region.
