Joey Logano survived a late-race wreck and overtime restart to win the first America 250 Duel on Thursday night, Feb. 12, at Daytona International Speedway, the first of two events setting the field for Sunday’s Daytona 500.
Logano led 15 laps and was pushed to the victory by teammate Ryan Blaney, earning his fourth career Duel win.
With the result, Logano will start third in the Daytona 500, lining up on the inside of the second row behind polesitter Kyle Busch.
“That race is in the books,” Logano told FOX Sports 1 post-race. “I think you learn some things about the draft, you learn what some cars can and can’t do.”
At the finish, Blaney followed Logano across the line, with Austin Dillon, John Hunter Nemechek and Brad Keselowski rounding out the top five.
Shane van Gisbergen, Casey Mears, Daniel Suarez, Ryan Preece and Alex Bowman completed the top 10.
Mears’ late charge secured a spot in the Daytona 500 for the Garage 66 Ford. Jimmie Johnson also made the race via the open exemption provisional.
Meanwhile, Corey LaJoie and Chandler Smith will miss the Great American Race after being involved in a lap 63 wreck.
The race flipped with fewer than 10 laps remaining when Bubba Wallace was spun in his 23XI Racing Toyota, triggering a multi-car wreck that sent the event into overtime. The crash reshuffled the running order, but Fords controlled the front row for the final sprint, with Logano and Blaney pacing the field.
Logano said handling issues in traffic contributed to several incidents.
“There’s a lot of cars that were swirling,” he said. “They didn’t handle really, really good, especially taking pushes. I think most of the wrecks came from pushes, and it just doesn’t feel comfortable.”
Earlier, a caution flew on lap 46 when Mears and Noah Gragson made contact entering pit road. Mears locked up his brakes and spun into Gragson as both attempted to pit for fuel.
The majority of the race was controlled by Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, which placed all four of its cars near the front for much of the night. Preece led a race-high 38 laps and was out front on lap 40 ahead of Chris Buescher, LaJoie and Keselowski before pit strategy shuffled the order. Preece took on more fuel than his teammates during the green-flag cycle, separating the quartet.
Logano credited teamwork for the victory.
“Ryan did a fantastic job with me, working together, working with the Team Penske mentality,” he said. “It’s cool to be both in victory lane together.”
With the Daytona 500 shifting to daytime conditions, Logano said teams will be working to improve handling before Sunday.
“We already started debriefing some things we want better in our racecars,” he said. “We’ve got speed, we proved that, which is a key piece at Daytona. But the pushability, everyone’s going to want to work on that some.
“The Daytona 500 is in the daytime. It’s nighttime right now — it’s as much grip as the track’s going to have. Whatever you’ve got tonight will be worse on Sunday. So you’ve got to go to work a little bit.”
The 68th Daytona 500 will be held on Sunday, Feb. 15 at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX. The second America 250 Duel at Daytona is live now on FS1.
And somewhere, Reed Sorensen should have a huge smile on his face watching LaJoie miss the Daytona 500 (see 2017 Duals).