Wallace, Cindric Win Daytona Duels To Set Daytona 500 Starting Lineup
Bubba Wallace and Austin Cindric avoided wrecks during their Daytona Duels, each picking up their first wins in the Daytona 500 field-setting races.
Justin Allgaier finished ninth in Duel 1 to qualify his JR Motorsports Chevrolet for the Daytona 500 as the fastest open driver in the race. It will be the Dale Earnhardt Jr-owned team’s first Cup Series race.
“This sport’s amazing, everything about it, I’ve seen it through so many different lenses and I love the challenges and I wouldn’t want it any other way, this is hard emotionally, but I can’t believe we get to race on Sunday,” Earnhardt said on FS1 after the race. “I just can’t believe it.”
Cindric had to wait a few moments to find out he was the Dual 2 winner. Erik Jones beat him to the line, but an accident behind them a second before brought out the yellow flag when Cindric had the lead by inches and he was declared the winner.
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Cindric had already secured a spot on the front row for the Daytona 500 by finishing second to Chase Briscoe during single-car qualifying on Wednesday night, so Jones will line up alongside Wallace on the second row for the race. Corey Lajoie, who is driving part time this year, finished fifth as the fastest open driver to lock in a spot in the Daytona 500. Martin Truex Jr. and Jimmie Johnson also qualified as the fastest open drivers during single-car qualifying.
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Forty-one cars will start the Daytona 500 because Helio Castroneves wrecked out of Dual 1 when Chandler Smith crashed in front of him. Castroneves has been given the first Open Exemption Provisional, which is a new program that guarantees a starting spot for approved elite drivers from other series. Had Castroneves been the fastest open driver in his Dual, only 40 cars would be starting the Daytona 500.
Here is the full starting lineup for the Daytona 500:
1: Chase Briscoe No. 19
2: Austin Cindric No. 2
3: Bubba Wallace No. 23
4: Eric Jones No. 43
5: William Byron No. 24
6: Chris Buescher No. 17
7: Ty Dillon No. 10
8: Denny Hamlin No. 11
9: Ross Chastain No. 1
10: Joey Logano No. 22
11: Tyler Reddick No. 45
12: Corey LaJoie No. 01
13: AJ Allmendinger No. 16
14: Todd Gilliland No. 34
15: Austin Dillon No. 3
16: Ryan Blaney No: 12
17: Chase Elliott No. 9
18: john Hunter Nemechek No. 42
19: Justin Allgaier No. 40
20: Christopher Bell No. 20
21: Kyle Busch No. 8
22: Kyle Larson No. 5
23: Ty Gibbs No. 54
24. Riley Herbst No. 35
25: Michael McDowell No. 71
26: Shane Van Gisbergen No. 88
27: Ryan Preece No. 60
28: Cody Ware No. 51
29: Josh Berry No. 21
30: Cole Custer No. 41
31: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. No. 47
32: Noah Gragson No. 4
33: Carson Hocevar No. Ist 77
34: Brad Keselowski No. 6
35: Justin Haley No. 7
36: Daniel Suárez No. 99
37: Zane Smith No. 38
38: Alex Bowman: No. 48
39: Martin Truex Jr. No. 56
40. Jimmie Johnson No. 84
41. Helio Castroneves No. 91
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