THE DUELS BEFORE THE JEWEL

Daytona’s 60-lap twin Duel races not only form the grid for the 500, but set the temperature for how the cars and drivers will race. As usual, one race was relatively mild, the other absolutely wild.

Aric Almirola and Austin Dillon (above) hogged the limelight with the race wins, but perhaps the most significant occurrences were the misfortunes that struck 500 front-row qualifiers Alex Bowman and William Byron, who hit engine trouble and the wall respectively.

Almirola led the first and last lap of Duel 1, initially trading the lead with poleman Bowman, who fell back reporting an engine problem at one-third distance. Almirola saw off a last-corner attack from Joey Logano by side-drafting him in the sprint to the finish line, which stalled out his run. Christopher Bell placed second, ahead of a strong-finishing Ryan Newman.

After a protracted rain delay, the feistier Duel 2 featured plenty of side-by-side action. A five-car crash off Turn 3, sparked by Cup rookie Chase Briscoe spinning, interrupted the fun. After another 15 laps of great racing, Garrett Smithley – a part-timer desperate to make the transfer spot into the 500 proper – went for a gap that vanished, tagging Brad Keselowski into Noah Gragson, with Byron crucially being taken out in the multi-car melee that followed. That meant Byron needed to switch to his back-up car for the 500 – a painful start from the rear of the field rather than the front row.

This race was settled in overtime. Three Toyotas ran out front at the start of the final lap, but Dillon had other ideas. Aided by a huge push from Kevin Harvick, the famed #3 Richard Childress Racing Chevy sliced past Wallace in the final yards, giving him a rude door-slam for good measure. A gutted Wallace finished second – “I made a lot of mistakes,” he rued – ahead of Harvick and Kyle Busch.