Reddick and Bell win Daytona Duels for Toyota, Johnson and Grala race into Daytona 500

In Duel #2, it was a battle between Kaz Grala and BJ McLeod. Grala, racing for Front Row Motorsports, put Michael McDowell on the front row last night in qualifying. The #38 Mustang over-revved the engine on the out lap in qualifying. The #38 team changed the engine overnight and got it ready for the duel.

McLeod, an independent team with no sponsor, a Hendrick Motorsports pit crew, and an ECR Chevrolet engine took his all-black Chevrolet Camaro as high as third in the duel. Contact in the lap forty-nine wreck would cut a tire down and small damage but the #78 pit crew got McLeod back in the race to battle for a spot. The two drivers would make it three wide on the last lap coming out of turn three, with Grala finishing twelfth and McLeod fourteenth. Lots of fight from the team with only nine full-time employees.

Duels at Daytona leave wrecked racecars for Busch, Blaney:

But the Duels at Daytona were not without some carnage. In the first race, coming to pit road, eventual winner Tyler Reddick got into the side of Toyota teammate Ty Gibbs, scraping off the yellow Goodyear lettering on his tires. 2018 Daytona 500 winner Austin Dillon had to take two right-side tires after he scrapped his too. Duel #1 would see Daniel Hemric slam into the wall and end his race early, along with last year’s 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. He would not get his car fixed and DNF.

The big one would happen in the second Duel at Daytona. On lap forty-seven, a bump from Brad Keselowski would send Kyle Busch into the bumper of Ryan Blaney, starting a chain reaction that would collect two other cars, Noah Gragson and Riley Herbst. All drivers involved were checked and released from the care center.

Starting lineup for the 2024 Daytona 500:

From NASCAR.com. * denotes Non-Charter, Open, Car

The lineup is set and the drivers are ready. The Great American race is all set for Sunday. TV coverage is set for 2:30 PM on FOX.