Joey Logano beat Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney under caution in NASCAR overtime to win the first race of Speedweeks, the America 250 Florida Duel 1, on Thursday night at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla.
Logano’s No. 22 Ford edged ahead of Blaney before Corey LaJoie, who restarted fourth and was in position to make the Daytona 500 field, wrecked on the backstretch to allow Casey Mears to roar past LaJoie’s No. 99 Ford from outside the top 10 and make the Great American Race.
Austin Dillon, Brad Keselowski and John Hunter Nemechek completed the top five.
“Just a lot of teamwork all the way through,” said Logano, who won his fourth career qualifying race and will start third on Sunday. “It’s nice when everything works out the way it’s supposed to. We’ve just got a great team around us.
“I do think we have a strong race car. It’s obviously a fast race car. We proved that tonight.”
At 47, Mears will be the oldest driver in Sunday’s field. It will mark his 15th Daytona 500, but his first since 2019.
“I had an issue on pit road, and I got a run on the outside and figured I’d just stay in the gas no matter what happened,” Mears said. “I didn’t know who was in front of me still and whether or not we made it. Then all the guys started going nuts on the radio.”
Kyle Busch started the 60-lapper from the pole and led the 23-car field to green, but Ryan Preece, last Wednesday’s winner of The Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, was first to the checkers on Lap 1.
Dillon, the 2018 Daytona 500 winner, found his way to the front, but the Fords of Blaney and Logano were soon in the mix.
However, the blue ovals belonging to RFK Racing — Preece, Chris Buescher, LaJoie and Keselowski — teamed up in the low line to take the first four positions on Lap 11.
Chandler Smith, one of the open drivers attempting to make Sunday’s field, moved his No. 36 Ford into seventh on Lap 33 as he needed to finish in front of LaJoie and Mears to start in the 500.
On Lap 39, the field turned its fastest lap with three-wide racing as the teams prepared to make their lone pit stop.
With all top nine cars sporting the Ford logo except Busch’s No. 8 Chevrolet and Nemechek’s No. 42 Toyota, the excitement began with 16 laps remaining as Mears and Noah Gragson spun together into the infield grass while coming to pit road.
The race’s first caution allowed the first group that pitted to restart up front, so Logano led Blaney with six to go as the racing picked up. Busch fell to the back to protect his pole position for Sunday.
Bubba Wallace, last year’s Duel 1 winner, passed Logano for the top spot with five laps to go, but that didn’t last as Dillon spun Wallace entering Turn 3. Buescher, Smith and two-time defending 500 winner William Byron then wrecked together on the high side to set up overtime.
–Field Level Media
