{"id":17986,"date":"2015-02-20T19:51:58","date_gmt":"2015-02-21T00:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=17986"},"modified":"2015-02-22T19:52:33","modified_gmt":"2015-02-23T00:52:33","slug":"dale-earnhardt-jr-jimmie-johnson-win-budweiser-duel-at-daytona-races-field-set-for-daytona-500","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2015\/02\/dale-earnhardt-jr-jimmie-johnson-win-budweiser-duel-at-daytona-races-field-set-for-daytona-500\/","title":{"rendered":"Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson Win Budweiser Duel At Daytona Races; Field Set for DAYTONA 500"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson Win Budweiser Duel At Daytona Races; Field Set for DAYTONA 500<\/strong><\/p>\n

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 The Budweiser Duel At Daytona races Thursday night at Daytona International Speedway were separate events won in equally dominating fashion by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson.<\/p>\n

The Budweiser Duel, consisting of two 150-mile (60 laps) qualifying races, established positions 3-32 for the 57th annual DAYTONA 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, with the top two qualifiers from last Sunday\u2019s DAYTONA 500 Qualifying Presented by Kroger \u2013 three-time champion Jeff Gordon and two-time champion Johnson \u2013 already locked into the front row. Gordon and Johnson started from the pole in the respective Duel events.
\n <\/p>\n

Earnhardt, the defending DAYTONA 500 champion who will start third in \u201cGreat American Race,\u201d started from the rear in the first Budweiser Duel event in the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet because his original 10th-place qualifying effort was disallowed due to a height violation found in post-qualifying inspection. The charge to the front resulted in him leading the last 18 laps \u2013 and looking like a solid contender to repeat as champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew this car was really fast when we got on the track Sunday,\u201d Earnhardt said. \u201cThis car seems to be quick no matter what situation it\u2019s in; I felt like the car made the job a lot easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gordon, despite his locked-in status, went for the win in the first race \u2013 and finished a strong second, 0.185 seconds behind Earnhardt, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I could say this was an easy test but it wasn\u2019t,\u201d said Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet. \u201cI ran three-wide [a lot].\u201d<\/p>\n

In the second Budweiser Duel, Johnson \u2013 another Hendrick Motorsports star \u2013 also was dominant, leading 40 laps behind the wheel of the No. 48 Lowe\u2019s Chevrolet. Kyle Busch finished second and will start fourth in the DAYTONA 500. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s huge [for Hendrick Motorsports] to have the week we have had with the front row being secured, the wins tonight, it has been a great start to Speedweeks,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

Danica Patrick pulled off a late rally in the second Budweiser Duel, coming back from a spin on Lap 57 that damaged her No. 10 Chevrolet significantly. Getting late drafting help from teammate Kurt Busch, she finished 10th and made the DAYTONA 500 field.<\/p>\n

Starting positions 33-36 went to the four fastest drivers from the qualifying session who didn\u2019t make the \u201cbig show\u201d via qualifying or the Duel-race finishes. Those four: Aric Almirola, two-time champion Michael Waltrip, two-time champion Matt Kenseth and Johnny Sauter.<\/p>\n

Positions 37-42 are provisional spots based on 2014 car owner points, going to the highest-finishing six entries who didn\u2019t qualify for the DAYTONA 500 via qualifying or the Budweiser Duel. Those six:
\nFormer champion Trevor Bayne, Sam Hornish Jr., Brad Keselowski, AJ Allmendinger, Casey Mears and Denny Hamlin.<\/p>\n

The 43rd and final spot went to Bobby Labonte \u2013 the most recent (2000) former NASCAR Sprint Cup champion in the field who hadn\u2019t otherwise made the DAYTONA 500 field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson Win Budweiser Duel At Daytona Races; Field Set for DAYTONA 500 DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 The Budweiser Duel At Daytona races Thursday night at Daytona International Speedway were separate events won in equally dominating fashion by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson. The Budweiser Duel, consisting of two 150-mile (60 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[45,21,14972],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nascar","category-sprint-cup","category-touring-series-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17986"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17987,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17986\/revisions\/17987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}