The Daytona 500 takes place Sunday, and on Thursday night, the starting order for this year’s Great American Race will be put.
After qualifying occurred last Sunday, the Gander RV Duels at Daytona will establish the starting order past the front row. The initial duel will feature the odd-numbered finishers from qualifying and set the order for the inside row. The next duel will contain the even-numbered ones and place the external row.
Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron and Alex Bowman secured their starting spots by posting the top two lap times throughout the last round of qualifying. Their other teammates, Jimmie Johnson and Chase Elliott, posted the next – and fourth-fastest times, meaning it will be all-Hendrick front rows for the two of Thursday night’s duel races.
The winner of Duel 1 will begin third on Sunday along with the Duel 2 winner will start fourth, believing Byron and Bowman do not win.
After the final starting order is set, it’ll be apparent which drivers will have some work to do on Sunday to make it to the front of the field.
Qualifying Results
1. William Byron (46.319 seconds, 194.305 mph)
2. Alex Bowman (46.355 seconds, 194.154 mph)
Duel 1 Beginning Order
1. William Byron
2. Jimmie Johnson
3. Daniel Hemric
4. Martin Truex Jr..
5. Brad Keselowski
6. Paul Menard
7. Kyle Busch
8. Kevin Harvick
9. Tyler Reddick
10. Ricky Stenhouse Jr..
11. Daniel Suarez
12. Chris Buescher
13. Ryan Newman
14. Ryan Truex
15. Ryan Preece
16. Matt Dibenedetto
17. Bubba Wallace
18. Matt Tifft
19. Parker Kligerman
20. Landon Cassill
21. Cody Ware
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