The Toyota camp showed the rest of Daytona 500 field that they will be fast when it matters Thursday night. Not one of the Toyota cars made it into the top 10 in Wednesday’s qualifying session, but Thursday night Toyota’s swept the Duel qualifying races both won by a last lap pass.
Meanwhile, Kaz Grala and Jimmie Johnson both raced their way into the 2024 Daytona 500.
Christopher Bell was able to get by Denny Hamlin on the final lap of the second Duel denying his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate the win.
The race was stopped after the night’s big crash 11 laps before the end that involved 11 cars. The crash started when William Byron lost momentum coming down the frontstretch, Kyle Busch slowed behind him, Brad Keselowski then got into Busch sending him into Byron who got into Ryan Blaney sending Blaney’s Ford headfirst into the outside wall in a hard crash that saw the Penske car roll to a stop on fire. Blaney was able to exit the car uninjured. Busch was also done for the night as was Roley Herbst and Noah Gragson.
The ensuing cleanup forced a read flag of nearly 9 minutes. The field restarted with 8 laps to go and Hamlin on point. It appeared to be Hamlin’s race until the final lap when Bell got by going down the backstretch and held on to win by .113.
The race for the final transfer spot came down to Kaz Grala and BJ McLeod with McLeod holding the edge for most of the 60 laps at one point running inside the top five. But McLeod suffered damage in the lap 59 crash and never seemed to have the speed he did earlier in the race.
VIDEO: Big crash near the end of the second Duel.
“That was so much more stressful than it needed to be for us,” Grala said. “For a little while we looked to be in good shape. Yeah, we had some trouble there. Pit road we weren’t able to stay with the draft.
Just really proud of everybody at Front Row Motorsports. They worked so hard the last 24 hours to get the car ready to race today. Some trouble yesterday. Really cool to be able to get it in the show for them. Real big opportunity for me. Excited to be here on Sunday again.”
Austin Cindric was able to ride behind Bell on the final lap to take second from Hamlin. John Hunter Nemechek and Harrison Burton completed the top 5.
“Probably needed to cover the top there a little bit better,” Hamlin said. “Yeah, I mean, it was really a good move by him. 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.”
VIDEO: Bell makes a last lap pass to win the second Duel.
For Bell it was his first win on a superspeedway.
“Yeah, it feels good,” Bell said. “These plate races, man, I don’t know what to think of ’em. Me and Adam Stevens, my crew chief, we have a running joke, I say these races are 100% luck. 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 the wrecks. Feels good to do everything well today.”
Bubba Wallace led a race high 21 laps and finished 11th.
Tyler Reddick won the first Duel also on the last lap, but all the attention was on the rear of the field as Jimmie Johnson and JJ Yeley battled to make the field in the closing laps.
Johnson had been strong all race long running as high as third at one point. But after pit stops, Johnson found himself near the back of the field with Yeley close by. Then with 9 laps to go he was part of a 4-wide battle entering Turn 3. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. who had led 25 laps earlier got into Martin Truex Jr. who had led 24 laps, sending both spinning. Daniel Hemric was sent hard into the outside wall, while Johnson spun. But with minor damage he was able to continue. After a stop for tires, Johnson restarted next to Yeley.
The two were side by side in the final laps with Yeley seemingly having the advantage as the field took the white flag. Coming out of Turn 4 Johnson was inside of Yeley and pulled ahead coming to the line finishing 12th while Yeley 16th.
Up front Reddick held off Chase Elliott for the win by .056 of a second. Behind Elliott, Alex Bowman, Carson Hocevar and Erik Jones rounded out the top five. Kyle Larson who led a race high 20 laps held on for ninth.
VIDEO: Jimmie Johnson fights to secure a starting spot in the Daytona 5oo on the final lap of Duel 1.
“This new Toyota Camry is truly a beast,” Reddick said. “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.”
When the dust settled Johnson was able to secure a starting spot in the 2024 Daytona 500.
“I’ve never been in a position like this before,” Johnson said. “I have such a greater appreciation for everyone that’s tried to race their way in. Although there’s only six more cars, I know at one time there were many more.
“I knew the first half of the race was going too easy,” the 7-time champion said. “I knew there would be a challenge thrown at us. We got it just in time.”
After it was over, Johnson went to Yeley’s car and shook his hand.
“Hats off to J. J. Yeley,” Johnson said. “Put up a fight. Heck of a car. We were in the right place when the checkered fell.”
VIDEO: Johnson swept up in crash near the end of the first Duel.
For Yeley it was almost a storybook ending. He was tabbed as the driver for NY Racing, a team assembled just for the Daytona 500, only days before the team showed up to Daytona.
“The car just didn’t have good acceleration on restarts,” Yeley said. “Side by side coming to two, three to go, I thought we were in really good job. Going into turn three, I’m not counting my chickens, but I was getting close. Saw there was some contact. Someone in the middle lost a lot of momentum.
“I made a split-second decision to go to the outside, carry the momentum, clear him, make the racetrack two-wide where he couldn’t pass. He stayed in the middle. The 19 pushed him. The momentum carried him all the way to the checkered flag.”
Yeley also failed to make the field for the 500 in 2022 with a team fielded by Carl Long.
“It sucks,” Yeley said. “Two years ago we were close. Just couldn’t get it.”
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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