Kyle Busch wins second Budweiser Duel at Daytona

Under a pit stop with 20 to go, Kyle Busch would take fuel only and have a solid pit stop to come off pit road in the lead. He would lead the rest of the way to win his first Budweiser Duel in four years. It also marks the second fastest Duel in NASCAR History with Busch completing the race with an average speed of 193.966 mph.
“It’s hard to pass the leader,” Busch said. “When you get out front, you can run pretty good. You just need to get out there and lead. There wasn’t enough lane-by-lane racing here, but you use the tools that you have once you figured it out and win.”
With 30 to go, Busch was running third in line and pulled out to try and make a move, however ended up falling back a couple positions.
“I tried to make a move,” he said. “I thought if I slide drafted off of the 31 (Jeff Burton) I could get back there. I knew I didn’t have much to lose since there were only two cars behind me. Coming on pit road, conserving the tires. That’s what won us the race there. dave made a great call getting no tires.”
Kasey Kahne tried to make a move on the last lap from the third position, however came up short finishing second.
“Maybe should have made my move a lap earlier cause that’s when I felt Austin pushing the most,” Kahne said. “I wanted to do it with two to go and see where we’d end up – but that’s a good run for the Farmers Insurance Chevrolet.”
Kahne says that if he could win his first Daytona 500 on Sunday, it would be amazing.
“We’ve gained a lot since the Sprint race on Saturday night to where we are at now and I feel if we gain a little more, we can be in the hunt,” he added.
Richard Childress’ grandson Austin Dillon finished third and will make his first Daytona 500 start on Sunday.
“That’s awesome,” Dillon said. “Got a little nervous before that. Just stayed in it the whole team, stayed right there with Kasey Kahne all race. Wanted to get a Chevrolet in the 500 but couldn’t get by Kyle there.”
Clint Bowyer finished fourth while Matt Kenseth rounded out the top five as he begins his first season with Joe Gibbs Racing.
“I feel like I’ve tried to do all the right things,” Kenseth said. “I saw the 5 (Kahne) coming, but I knew the outside was quicker so tried to stay out there with him and hoped the 15 (Bowyer) would get there at the last moment. But then the 15 made the move to the inside at the last minute. I should’ve made the move on the 18 (Busch) before the 5 could make the move on me. Guess I have to make my moves better.”
Mark Martin finished sixth, followed by Paul Menard, Jeff Burton, Jamie McMurray and David Regan.
Marcos Ambrose finished 11th with Jeff Gordon 12th. Gordon locked himself into the second starting spot for the Daytona 500 in qualifying last Sunday. Gordon led the first half of the Budweiser Duel, however suffered a pit road speeding penalty under the green flag stops. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Bobby Labonte also sufferd pit road speeding penalties.
Aric Almirola finished 13th, followed by Stenhouse Jr., Dave Blaney and Josh Wise.
“It’s awesome,” Wise said after qualifying for his first Daytona 500. “It’s a huge amount of stress lifted off our shoulders. We knew if we stayed out of trouble and ran our race we’d get the transfer there.”
Ryan Newman would suffer problems coming on to pit road as he would spin the car out, barely touching the outside wall, as the field came down pit road. He would blow out a tire, however made it back to pit road without further damage. There was no caution for the spin.
As a result of the Budweiser Duels, Mike Bliss and Brian Keselowski failed to make the Daytona 500.
Lap by Lap: Budweiser Duel Race No. 2 won by Kyle Busch

Kyle Busch would put himself in position after the final pit stop and take the victory in the second Budweiser Duel at Daytona International Speedway.
Duel Race No. 2 pole sitter Jeff Gordon elected to start on the outside.
Green flag
Lap 1 Newman and Gordon side-by-side for the lead through turns one and two as the whole field is two-by-two
Lap 2 Newman gets put in the sucker hole as Gordon pulls ahead while Kasey Kahne and Kyle Busch are side-by-side for second.
Lap 5 Gordon and Kyle Busch single-file while Stenhouse Jr. and Kahne side-by-side for third
Lap 12 Gordon Kahne Dillon Burton Busch Ambrose Kenseth Martin Menard McMurray as the field has gone single file
Lap 13 Mike Bliss needs to come to pit road due to his window net being down.
Lap 23 close call as Kenseth tries to block the run that Menard has on the bottom
Lap 25 top eight are single-file as Bowyer and Menard are side-by-side for ninth
30 to go Kyle Busch pulled down out of fourth, nobody went with him, he falls back through the pack to seventh.
29 to go Gordon Kahne Dillon Burton Ambrose Kenseth, Busch
27 to go Gordon Kahne Dillon Burton Ambrose Kenseth Busch Martin Menard lead a single file train ahead of the field
23 to go Travis Kvapil has lost the draft
22 to go Blaney, Wise and Yeley pit.
21 to go Bowyer passed Menard for ninth. Gordon Kahne McMurray and half of the field pit. Kenseth to the lead. Gordon too fast entering pit road. He will have to serve a penalty.
20 to go The other half of the field pit – Kenseth, Busch, Ambrose and more. Stenhouse and Labonte too fast exiting pit road.
19 to go Stenhouse and Gordon down pit road serving his penalty. Newman makes it back to pit road.
18 to go Busch leads Bowyer Kenseth Kahne Menard Martin Burton Dillon McMurray Regan
13 to go Busch leads Bowyer Kahne Menard Martin Burton Kenseth Dillon McMurray Regan
11 to go Menard kicks Kahne out of line, passing him for third. Kahne back to sixth.
10 to go Busch Bowyer Menard Martin Kenseth Kahne Dillon is the lead draft single-file
9 to go Kenseth gives Bowyer a shove, Bowyer goes for the run under Busch
8 to go Bowyer doesn’t clear so falls back to fifth.
7 to go Busch leads Kenseth Kahne Dillon Bowyer Martin are the lead pack. Kvapil goes a lap down, running 17th
6 to go Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Josh Wise go a lap down, currently running 15th and 16th.
FL turn one, Kasey Kahne and Dillon make a run underneath Kenseth, Busch down to block. Busch Kahne Dillon and Bowyer down the backstraight with Kenseth fifth.
Kyle Busch wins the Gatorade Duel. Kahne. Dillon, Bowyer, Kenseth, Martin, Menard, Burton, McMurray, Regan, Ambrose, Gordon, Almirola, Stenhouse Jr., Blaney, Wise.
Kevin Harvick wins first Budweiser Duel in Daytona

When the field came up on Brian Keselowski to put him a lap down on lap 38, Kevin Harvick used it to his advantage as he made the pass on Greg Biffle to take the lead. Harvick would then hold the lead through pit stops and on the final restart with three to go to take the victory in the first Budweiser Duel at Daytona International Speedway.
It marks the second straight win for Harvick after winning the Sprint Unlimited on Saturday night.
“I think the way it worked out is that you were free and I was definately free on the bottom,” Harvick said. “That’s why I think the top was the way to go. You had to be careful when you made moves or you’d be put to the back pretty quick.”
A pre-race superstition has also built for Harvick as he has put son Keelan in the seat before the start of both races.
“We’re just having a good time,” Harvick said. “Having Delana and Keelan here is relaxing. Keeps me balanced.”
Greg Biffle would finish second, just like in the Sprint Unlimited, as teams work at continuing to learn how the new Gen 6 car will handle in the draft.
“It seemed like the top lane was fast, and then four of us made the bottom work,” Biffle said. “I don’t know if anybody knows yet.”
Juan Pablo Montoya would come through the field late in the race to finish third, followed by Jimmie Johnson and Regan Smith. Tony Stewart finished fifth, followed by Brad Keselowski, Casey Mears and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Joey Logano finished 11th, followed by Bobby Labonte, David Gilliland, Joe Nemechek, Michael Waltrip and Scott Speed.
“I think we have a really good car,” Speed said. “We were really good in the race, blew the pit stop and then in the back had nobody to work with.”
“The choice was obviously made by a bunch of us to run around in circles and just make laps,” Waltrip said.
Martin Truex Jr. crossed the line in ninth, however was blackflagged the last lap due to no side window.
There’d be one caution during the event with eight to go when Denny Hamlin would get loose, getting into Carl Edwards. Trevor Bayne and Regan Smith were also collected in the wreck.
“We were coming up on the pack and the 99 (Edwards) and 13 (Casey Mears) were trying to keep us back there,” Hamlin said. “He came up a bit, I came down and right when I came down to his right rear, I got sideways and was in trouble. Our car was handling good so goes to show you what happen depending what position you put yourself in aero wise.”
We had a really good car,” Bayne said. “You saw Carl get sideways there and get into us. It’s unfortunate. Look at before – we qualified third and then crashed the car so maybe we’ll do that again.”
“I was driving along minding my own business and thought I’d go up there and get a draft and Denny just got sideways behind me,” Edwards said. “This is the fourth car we’ve wrecked while we were down there. Got to thank my guys for wrecking so hard.”
Daytona 500 pole sitter Danica Patrick ran a pretty conservative race, finishing 17th.
“I learned some,” she said. “I feel like what I really need to do is go down to Harvick’s bus and figure out what he is doing cause he has it going on. the top was the way to go. I was easy on the gas at the beginning , to try and not get freight trained. “







