Chase Elliott wins second Daytona Duel qualifying race
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Chase Elliott’s a Daytona qualifying race winner for the second-straight season.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver dominated a relatively calm second Duel race Thursday night and won ahead of Kevin Harvick and Erik Jones.
Denny Hamlin, who will start second in the Daytona 500 thanks to his qualifying speed, was running second to Elliott for much of the race’s final laps. But Harvick, sitting in third, ducked under Hamlin with less than two laps to go and the cars behind Harvick followed suit. But Harvick didn’t have enough of a run to get close to making a pass of Elliott over the race’s final lap.
The move left Hamlin with very little drafting help and he finished ninth.
The race’s only wreck came when Jones got loose on the outside of Elliott early in the race. Jones went spinning with minor damage but the accident collected Matt DiBenedetto and Kyle Larson. They were forced to retire from the race.
Elliott won a qualifying race in 2017 after he qualified first for the 500. He ended up 14th after getting caught up in two wrecks and running out of gas late in the race.
1. Chase Elliott (starts 4th in Daytona 500)
2. Kevin Harvick (6th)
3. Erik Jones (8th)
4. Clint Bowyer (10th)
5. Kyle Busch (12th)
6. Austin Dillon (14th)
7. Paul Menard (16th)
8. Trevor Bayne (18th)
9. Denny Hamlin (2nd)
10. AJ Allmendinger (20th)
11. Michael McDowell (22nd)
12. Martin Truex Jr. (24th)
13. Kasey Kahne (26th)
14. Danica Patrick (28th)
15. DJ Kennington (30th)
16. Corey LaJoie (32nd)
17. Gray Gaulding (34th)
18. Mark Thompson (36th)
19. Matt DiBenedetto (38th)
20. Kyle Larson (40th)
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
