Jimmie Johnson Caps Off a Hendrick Motorsports Dominance in the Budweiser Duels - Speedway Digest

“To be able to get out there and race and be out there with good cars – those Gibbs cars are awfully strong,” Johnson said following his victory. “So to size myself up against them and see what kind of runs they can create and try to put on me. At the start of the race, I was behind those two trying to figure out to get by them. All in all, it was a very productive night.”

Johnson led a race-high 31 laps as he blocked Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth for the final handful of laps. After expressing his No. 48 car’s strengths in the second half of the race, the six-time champion fought off the Toyota-powered cars to earn the victory.

Ryan Blaney finished inside of the top five in the Wood Brothers Ford. Blaney will race in his first Daytona 500 in what will be the beginning of an 18-race stint with the No. 21 team.

Danica Patrick, who was on the verge of missing the Daytona 500 after spinning on Lap 56, finished 10^th to race her way in. Following the race, Patrick and Denny Hamlin exchanged words on pit road in a heated discussion. Patrick believed that Hamlin got into the rear end of her No. 10 car, but he continuously denied it.

Front Row Motorsports driver David Ragan entered the second Budweiser Duel 150 with no owner points and a qualifying time outside of the top 30. With the No. 34 car’s owner points going to new teammate Cole Whitt, Ragan had to race his way into the Daytona 500 by finishing inside of the top 16. On Lap 19, Ragan and Justin Allgaier got together on the frontstretch. Ragan’s car received rear end damage, and he fell one lap down following a lengthy pit stop under caution. However, after getting back on the lead lap, he was able to surge into the top 16 – finishing 14^th.

Reed Sorenson, who nearly didn’t have the opportunity to race on Thursday evening due to not having a backup car at the track, executed his way into the top 10 late in the race, along with Mike Wallace as the two made it into the Daytona 500.

Brian Scott missed the Daytona 500 in the No. 62 Chevrolet. Bobby Labonte finished 20^th, but was able to use the champion’s provisional to make his way into Sunday’s event. Jeb Burton and Alex Bowman didn’t qualify for the race after being involved in a wreck on Lap 36 with Sam Hornish, Jr. and Austin Dillon. Hornish made the race based on owner points, and Dillon was able to continue and finished 15^th. Josh Wise wasn’t able to get going from the start of the race in his Phil Parsons Racing No. 98 Ford. He was able to make it back on track for a handful of laps, but finished 24^th.

Starting lineup via NASCAR.com.

Row	Inside	Outside	Explained
1	Jeff Gordon	Jimmie Johnson	Top two qualifiers (Final round of Coors Light Pole Qualifying)
2	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Kyle Busch	Top 15 from Duel races (Inside: First race; Outside: Second race)
3	Joey Logano	Carl Edwards	Top 15 from Duel races
4	Tony Stewart	Greg Biffle	Top 15 from Duel races
5	Clint Bowyer	Martin Truex Jr.	Top 15 from Duel races
6	Kevin Harvick	Ryan Blaney	Top 15 from Duel races
7	Kasey Kahne	Reed Sorenson	Top 15 from Duel races
8	Jamie McMurray	Mike Wallace	Top 15 from Duel races
9	Landon Cassill	Justin Allgaier	Top 15 from Duel races
10	Cole Whitt	Danica Patrick	Top 15 from Duel races
11	Paul Menard	Ryan Newman	Top 15 from Duel races
12	Michael McDowell	Kurt Busch	Top 15 from Duel races
13	JJ Yeley	David Gilliland	Top 15 from Duel races
14	Michael Annett	David Ragan	Top 15 from Duel races
15	Kyle Larson	Austin Dillon	Top 15 from Duel races
16	Ty Dillon	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Top 15 from Duel races
17	Aric Almirola	Michael Waltrip	Four fastest qualifiers from any round
18	Matt Kenseth	Johnny Sauter	Four fastest qualifiers from any round
19	Denny Hamlin	Brad Keselowski	2014 owner points
20	Trevor Bayne	AJ Allmendinger	2014 owner points
21	Sam Hornish Jr.	Casey Mears	2014 owner points
22	Bobby Labonte	xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx	Past champion

Author
Recent Posts

Joseph Wolkin

Joseph Wolkin (@JosephNASCAR) is a sophomore at the Queensborough Community College as an English major. He’s a native of Whitestone, NY, just outside of New York City, and has been attempting to find roots of motorsports within his area since 2004. He started out as just a fan, but over the course of his high school career, he ended up falling in love with writing.
Joseph has been covering NASCAR since 2011 for several different websites. Recently, he was named as one of two lead NASCAR columnists for Rant Sports after working for the site for over one year. Working with Rant Sports for approximately 14 months, Joseph has covered New York City area sports teams such as the New York Giants, New York Mets, New York Rangers, New York Islanders and more.
Through his passion is for NASCAR, Joseph has adapted to changing times and realizes that he has numerous opportunities in the journalism work. As one of the top young sports writers, his goal is to become one of the top motorsports writers of this new digital media era. However, he also believes that it’s important to stick to the traditional routers of print publications after seeing his high school newspaper dissolve due to a lack of funding.
Currently, besides his duties with Speedway Digest, Joseph is a columnist with Fronstretch.com, Motorsport.com and has a weekly article in NASCAR Pole Position's digital version - ROAR! Weekly Race Preview Magazine.