Harvick and Busch win Daytona duels

Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch have shared the victories in the two Budweiser Duels ahead of this Sunday’s Daytona 500.

The two races set the grid for the inside and outside lanes of the 500, except for the front-row, which was locked out by Danica Patrick and Jeff Gordon during mid-week qualifying.

Patrick elected to drop to the rear of the field in the first duel to ensure that she did not wreck and jeopardise her pole slot for the 500.

Sprint Unlimited race winner Harvick eventually led home Greg Biffle, Juan-Pablo Montoya, Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch in a tight finish to the first race following a late restart.

The yellows had flown for an incident that saw Denny Hamlin got loose off of Turn 2 and collected Carl Edwards, spinning the latter’s Ford hard into the outside wall.

The second Duel ran green for its duration. Gordon looked the goods during the early running, but earned a drive-through penalty for pitlane speeding in the mid-race pitstops.

Kyle Busch emerged from the stops with a lead he would not relinquish – surviving a last lap charge from Kasey Kahne and Austin Dillon.

Clint Bowyer took fourth ahead of Matt Kenseth, who was shuffled back in the final miles after electing not to pull out and challenge team-mate Bush.

Australian Marcos ran in the top group until a lock-up heading to pit road ensured a long, four-tyre, stop. He eventually finished 11th and will start the 500 from 24th.

“I am just really upset with myself,” he said afterward.

“We didn’t know which tyre was going down and I panicked. I called for four tires because I didn’t want to take the risk of ruining this car.

“We had speed in it and I am much happier with this car than I was with the shootout car so I feel a lot better going into Sunday than I did a couple of days ago, that is for sure.”

Brian Keselowski and Mike Bliss are the only two drivers on the 45 car entry list that failed to make the field.

Patrick will have to survive two more practice sessions before the 500 to ensure she starts from the point.

Watch the final laps of Duel 1

Watch the final laps of Duel 2

See below for the full Daytona 500 starting line-up

DAYTONA 500 STARTING LINEUP
Pos.	No.	Driver	Pos.	No.	Driver
Row 1
1	10	Danica Patrick	2	24	Jeff Gordon
Row 2
3	29	Kevin Harvick	4	18	Kyle Busch
Row 3
5	16	Greg Biffle	6	5	Kasey Kahne
Row 4
7	42	Juan Pablo Montoya	8	33	Austin Dillon
Row 5
9	48	Jimmie Johnson	10	15	Clint Bowyer
Row 6
11	78	Kurt Busch	12	20	Matt Kenseth
Row 7
13	14	Tony Stewart	14	55	Mark Martin
Row 8
15	2	Brad Keselowski	16	27	Paul Menard
Row 9
17	13	Casey Mears	18	31	Jeff Burton
Row 10
19	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	20	1	Jamie McMurray
Row 11
21	22	Joey Logano	22	34	David Ragan
Row 12
23	47	Bobby Labonte	24	9	Marcos Ambrose
Row 13
25	38	David Gilliland	26	43	Aric Almirola
Row 14
27	87	Joe Nemechek	28	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Row 15
29	26	Michael Waltrip	30	7	Dave Blaney
Row 16
31	95	Scott Speed	32	35	Josh Wise
Row 17
33	21	Trevor Bayne	34	39	Ryan Newman
Row 18
35	11	Denny Hamlin	36	99	Carl Edwards
Row 19
37	56	Martin Truex Jr.	38	51	Regan Smith
Row 20
39	93	Travis Kvapil	40	83	David Reutimann
Row 21
41	32	Terry Labonte	42	36	JJ Yeley
Row 22
43	98	Michael McDowell