Harvick doubles up with victory in 1st Budweiser Duel
Feb. 21, 2013
(EDITORS: Will be updated)
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Kevin Harvick is two for two.
The
winner of Saturday night's Sprint Unlimited doubled up in Thursday's
first Budweiser Duel 150-mile qualifying race at Daytona International
Speedway, with Greg Biffle running second, as he did on Saturday night.
Harvick led every lap from 37 on in grabbing the third starting spot for Sunday's Daytona 500.
Traveling
in the outside lane, Hamlin's No. 11 Toyota got loose and turned into
the Ford of Carl Edwards, who nosed hard into the outside
backstretch wall. The cars of Trevor Bayne and Regan Smith also were
damaged in the wreck.
The
Wood Brothers, Bayne's team, will go to a back-up car for the Daytona
500, and Bayne will start from the rear because of the equipment
change.
Brian Keselowski, who finished 21st was eliminated from the Daytona 500 field. Together the Budweiser Duels set positions
3-32 in the Great American Race.
Daytona 500 pole winner Danica Patrick, who finished 17th
with her car intact, led the field to green but didn't stay at
the front for long. With the outside lane clearly the fastest way
around the 2.5-mile superspeedway, Patrick dropped out of the top six on
Lap 5 and worked her way to the rear of the field along with Stewart,
her car owner.
Subsequently,
the field went single-file, running at the top of the track near the
wall. Bayne, the 2011 Daytona 500 winner, led the
first 36 laps, before Harvick decided to make a move and grabbed the
top spot on Lap 37.
Harvick
remained at the point after coming to pit road for a green-flag stop on
Lap 42. The pit stops segmented the field, and by Lap
50, Harvick was at the head of a four-car breakaway that included
Biffle, Martin Truex Jr. and Jimmie Johnson.
But the first caution of the race erased the advantage of the lead group and bunched the field for a restart on Lap 57.
Juan Pablo Montoya ran third, followed by Johnson and Kurt Busch.
No comments:
Post a Comment