Burton edges teammate Bowyer to win 2nd Gatorade Duel

Burton edges teammate Bowyer to win 2nd Gatorade Duel


Jeff Burton won the second of two Gatorade Duel 150 qualifying races Thursday at Daytona International Speedway, edging Richard Childress Racing teammate Clint Bowyer for the victory by .005 seconds.
Burton will start Sunday’s Daytona 500 from the fourth position, having won the race that set the even-numbered positions for the 53rd running of NASCAR’s most prestigious event.
Kurt Busch, who won the first Duel, will start from the pole position, and Jeff Gordon, who had the second-best time in Sunday’s pole qualifying, will start on the outside of the front row.
Michael Waltrip raced his way into the 500, grabbing one of the two transfer positions into the field, with a third-place finish. He was followed to the line by Kyle Busch and Brian Keselowski, who claimed the second transfer position with a strong, sustained push from his brother Brad Keselowski.
By claiming a starting spot through the Duel, Waltrip promoted Dave Blaney, who was fifth fastest in time trials among drivers required to qualify on speed, into the starting field.
Just after the halfway point of the 60-lap race, four pairs of cars broke away from the rest of the field. Bowyer pushed Burton to the lead, with the tandems of Gordon-Trevor Bayne, Carl Edwards-Greg Biffle and Waltrip-David Reutimann swapping positions behind them.
Burton and Bowyer exchanged positions on Lap 38, enabling Gordon to surge into the lead with Bayne behind him. With their heat-tolerant FR9 engines, Ford drivers could push for extended stretches simply by ducking out slightly from the car they were following and getting air to the engine compartment.
On Lap 40, Brad Keselowski spun off Turn 3 after a tap from Todd Bodine, bringing out the third caution of the race and bunching the field.
On Lap 47, Denny Hamlin spun on the backstretch after contact from Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch, after the two drivers closed fast on Ford drivers Biffle and Edwards.
Edwards and Biffle led the field to a restart on Lap 50, but five laps later, Bodine spun off the apron in Turn 2 and collected Steve Wallace, setting up a three-lap run to the finish.