Here’s what drivers were saying after Thursday’s Bluegreen Vacations Duel races that set the starting lineup for the Daytona 500.
Duel 1
Tyler Reddick — Winner: “This new Toyota Camry is truly a beast. It was a lot of fun to drive. It’s great to get this Nasty Beast Toyota in victory lane, that’s for sure. As for me, I’m still making a lot of mistakes, but I had a good restart. It was a lot of fun tonight.”
Chase Elliott — Finished 2nd: “I thought our NAPA Chevy was pretty good. I mean all things considered, we’re locked-in from qualifying, setup-wise and stuff, so I thought our car drove pretty good considering everything you try to do to go fast for a lap. I was pleased. I thought we had a good night of execution to put ourselves in a good position there. We came up a little bit short, but I thought overall, it was a solid effort. We kept the car in one piece, which is a big deal I feel like for Sunday. Looking forward to it.”
Alex Bowman — Finished 3rd: “To come home third is really good... way better than I thought we were going to run tonight, honestly, with how I thought it was going to drive. I’m just proud of this whole Ally team. We were all disappointed with (qualifying) last night, but definitely a good night tonight.”
Carson Hocevar — Finished 4th: “We all had a game plan to just kind of ride and save as much fuel as possible. I got disconnected a little bit and had to make the best pit entry of my life to catch up. I had a big gap to make and got everything out of it. I kind of lost the draft a little bit, but luckily I had a really strong car with Corey (LaJoie) behind me to get caught back up. We made some really good moves to put myself in a decent spot there before the caution and get track position. I did my best to be a good Chevy teammate and help the boys over there at Hendrick Motorsports and get the No. 9 out front. Just a little too draggy compared to them and I just couldn’t keep connected.”
Erik Jones — Finished 5th: “We had to kind of race all night. Had that mindset going in just with the new body and new manufacturer just to try to learn and figure out what it was going to do on Sunday. Yeah, it was quick. As soon as the green dropped, I was like, ‘Man, it’s good.’ And we were able to cycle right there to the front. It’s such a short race. Things just didn’t play out good enough for us to try and have a shot between pit road, and then that yellow came out right when we got cycled back to 11th. It just didn’t play out right.”
Daniel Suarez — Finished 6th: “I think it was good. The guys did a really good job with it. Our No. 99 Freeway Insurance Chevy had good speed — it handled well, and overall, it was a good day. There is always room for improvement and hopefully we can make the car a little bit better for Sunday and see what we can do. But we are all feeling pretty good about the car.”
Joey Logano — Finished 7th: “I was a little further back than I wanted to be. We did a good job with our cycle and got ourselves out there, but there weren’t a lot of Fords with me. I was on my own there and the Chevy gang came and got by us and the Toyotas were coming and there’s no defending it. We just didn’t have enough numbers in this race and that was just by luck.”
Kyle Larson — Finished 9th: “Yeah, I felt really good about my car. I haven’t seen the replay... I don’t think Alex (Bowman) touched me, but he got really close and it took the air off the back. I got sideways in the corner and thankfully was able to save it. Just bummed that I wasn’t able to finish up front. That sucks, but our No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy was fast, and I think we learned a lot. Honestly, every move we made was good, it just didn’t work out again. So, yeah, learned a lot and we will take it to Sunday.”
Chris Buescher — Finished 10th: “More friends would have definitely helped. That made it a little tough trying to make it through all the cars hitting pit road. We just really got jacked up, but I thought all of our cars worked well together when we could get them lined up and really start rolling. I was able to push the 22 really well there, but there was nowhere to go with all of the cars up front not being able to get it done.”
Ross Chastain — Finished 11th: “Yeah, my car was really smooth to drive and it had no balance issues. A very neutral balance. I sped on the green flag stop. I didn’t get to go back out with more fuel and old tires because on the fueling stop, I sped and didn’t get to feel that in the draft. That is not good, but other than that, no issues on our car and everywhere I was, it wasn’t aggressive for the pushing.”
Jimmie Johnson — Finished 12th: “It was intense. With probably three to go (JJ Yeley) threw a great block on me on the front stretch and it kind of perked me up and I realized just what kind of battle I was in for in the closing laps. Hats off to them for the hard effort they put into this. This is not easy, and it stinks that a car has got to go home. They put up a heck of a fight and we’re fortunate to get in.”
Duel 2
Christopher Bell — Winner: “These plate races, I don’t know what to make of them. Me and Adam Stevens, my crew chief, we have a running joke that I always say these races are 100 percent luck. And I know that’s not true, but it seems like we’ve been struggling to get to the end of it. I know I’ve been a common denominator in a lot of these wrecks, so feels good to do everything right today.”
Austin Cindric — Finished 2nd: “It was a really strong effort by everyone on the Discount Tire Ford Mustang. Obviously, we had good pace in qualifying and had a really strong car and great execution in the race. I wish things would have played out differently in the last five laps. We were able to get back up to the front and had some good runs and we got a couple Fords up there in the top-five. Overall, I am just poised to get to the 500 and see what we’ve got for the long race.”
Denny Hamlin — Finished 3rd: “I mean, it was really a good move by (Christopher Bell). Getting the momentum, it started to get stirred up behind him, we’re trying everything we can to block both lanes. You just can’t. You got to pick one. Really just good, solid day. Got some information to learn from. We’ll go race here on Sunday.”
John Hunter Nemechek — Finished 4th: “We have a new spotter, Ryan Blanchard, and with myself, I felt like we worked well together. His first superspeedway race ever. A lot to learn, but I feel like we did well. Stayed out of the mess, stayed out of the carnage. Missed it by not very much. Overall, really solid night. I’m proud of the effort from everyone at Legacy Motor Club. The whole Toyota, TRD camp — it was awesome to be able to lineup with Denny (Hamlin) and C-Bell (Christopher Bell) there at the end. I really had a shot to go up there and push and try to get a win.”
Harrison Burton — Finished 5th: “I had a real shot at it. I’m really proud of our guys. In that first wreck, the big wreck, I bounced off the fence and a quick diagnosis by the guys to make sure we could keep going. We pitted. I have a lot of confidence in that crew. When they say my car is good to go, it’s good to go. It was really fun racing with these guys. I thought we had the move to win. I haven’t seen a replay yet. I tried to get to the 20’s outside and just got, with the 2 pushing me, got really, really loose.”
Zane Smith — Finished 6th: “After tonight, I feel really good about Sunday. I feel like I learned a lot. Last year, I had to race in – play it safe, but be aggressive at times and was just worried the whole time. I wanted to go into tonight with our No. 71 WeatherTech Chevy being aggressive and learn for Sunday, and I feel like we accomplished that.”
Brad Keselowski — Finished 7th:
#NASCAR … Brad Keselowski on his viewpoint of that multi-car crash in his Daytona Duel. pic.twitter.com/GOdBaDRXam
— Dustin Long (@dustinlong) February 16, 2024
William Byron — Finished 8th:
#NASCAR … William Byron on what happened in that multi-car crash in the second qualifying race. pic.twitter.com/FwNBy3ok2N
— Dustin Long (@dustinlong) February 16, 2024
Chase Briscoe — Finished 9th: “The beginning of the race I tried to save fuel as much as I could. It seems like this race, the shorter you can make the final pit stop the better position you put yourself in. We rode around probably 15th on back at the beginning and after the fuel cycle we were third or fourth. I thought that was the right play to do. It was starting to get dicey at the end and couldn’t miss the wreck there with (Ryan) Blaney. Tore our car up a little bit. We didn’t kill it but we have a lot of work to do just to get it ready.”
Kaz Grala — Finished 12th: “That was a pretty intense battle there coming down to the last couple of laps. It was way closer than I wanted it to be, but it was great racing with BJ (McLeod) and David Ragan. Everybody racing clean and pushing hard, so that was cool. I’m happy to get this No. 36 Ruedebusch Ford into the Daytona 500 because Front Row Motorsports worked so hard yesterday to get this car ready and in shape for today and they did a great job.”
Michael McDowell — Finished 16: “Once I was the last man standing up there I just rolled out knowing that we wanted to race for the win. We were racing for the win. But once we weren’t in position to race for the win we needed to do everything we could to protect our Love’s Travel Stops Mustang Dark Horse. It drove well with a lot of speed. We had a shot at it, just didn’t get it done there at the end.”
Josh Berry — Finished 17th: “I was pretty happy with the car. It is a unique scenario. I thought we were able to make some moves and make some progress. Overall I thought the car was solid. I hate whatever the issue was we had at the end. I thought we were in a really good spot. It was a great opportunity to race up front and learn but unfortunately we didn’t get refired there but the guys will get everything fixed up and we have a couple practices to work through things and get ready for Sunday.”
Ryan Blaney — Finished 18th: “I’m OK. By the replay it just looks like awful pushes in terrible spots. That’s usually how these wrecks happen. Three times in a row here I’ve been right-reared by someone else’s awful push, so I’m getting pretty sick of it. People just have to be smart. I don’t know what you’re doing. It’s a Duel race. Why are you shoving in the tri-oval? I don’t get it, so just a shame we have to be the one with a tore up race car when it’s someone else’s issue. I don’t know.”
Kyle Busch — Finished 19th: “I was just getting a push from the No. 6 there, and the No. 24 I saw kind of got messed up, out of line and slowed down. I tried to lift and roll out of the gas smoothly. I was still gaining too fast, and then I got all the way out of the gas. Got bumped again from behind and just accordioned into the No. 24 and sent him spinning. You don’t want to hit a guy in the tri-oval. I’ve been there, I’ve done that. I’ve also rolled out of here in an ambulance before doing that, so I know it’s not the right thing to do, but sometimes you don’t have a choice and I turned the No. 24 sideways and caused a wreck.”
Riley Herbst — Finished 20th: “I’m just really frustrated with myself for my lack of judgment. We had no shot to win the race after I didn’t have a really good green flag stop at all. I got shuffled there and I should have understood the bigger picture and been better aware to bail at that point. We had a good start to the run. It was fun to run with Noah (Gragson) and really fun to lead laps in the Cup Series again. It continues to build my confidence and continues to build my respect in this garage, but hindsight is 20/20 and I should have bailed immediately after the green flag stop and just rode to see Sunday.”
Noah Gragson — Finished 21st: “It’s unfortunate that we got torn up, but the guys at Stewart-Haas Racing have been working really, really hard and I think our backup car — it sucks going back there, there’s a lot of hard work and I hate tearing stuff up, but I’m grateful to be back here and we’ll give ‘em hell on Sunday.”
