Last lap passes, pit road woes and 'The Big One': Recapping a wild night at the Daytona Duels

Johnson and Yeley, both veterans of the NASCAR circuit, shared a moment of mutual respect following the checkered flag, shaking hands as a dejected Yeley sat inside his NY Racing Camaro. 

For his part, Reddick won the race by making a daring move on the back straightaway, getting to the inside of Kyle Larson and pulling away when Larson’s teammate, Alex Bowman, got Larson’s car loose, letting Reddick drive to victory. 

Underdogs were the early story of duel two, as Zane Smith, BJ McLeod, and Riley Herbst all spent substantial time in the top five, with Herbst leading laps before Bubba Wallace assumed the lead. Similar to the first duel, pit road also plagued drivers. Kaz Grala lost the draft after a slow pit stop, while rookie Zane Smith incurred a speeding penalty following the cycle of green flag pit stops. 

But pit road would be the least of the field’s worries, as the harrowing ‘Big One’ happened on lap 48, with the crash collecting defending Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney, Noah Gragson, Kyle Busch and BJ McLeod, who got right front damage in the incident. William Byron was also involved, as was Bubba Wallace, who drove the dominant car for much of the middle portion of the race. Blaney expressed his frustration with the crash in the garage area.

Michael McDowell, who qualified second on Wednesday night, was shuffled out of the pack after Denny Hamlin threw a late block coming to four laps to go, giving way to Hamlin’s teammate Christopher Bell to take the lead before Hamlin took it right back. Brad Keselowski went to the middle with three laps to go, splitting up the field and leading to a six car breakaway up front. At the back of the pack, Kaz Grala and BJ McLeod battled for the final spot in the Daytona 500.

Similar to the first duel, a Toyota driver won the second duel with a last lap pass. After an aggressive block by Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell held off a hard charging Austin Cindric to avenge his 2023 duel defeat and place himself fourth on the grid for Sunday’s Daytona 500. Kaz Grala beat BJ McLeod by less than one tenth of a second to make the Great American Race.

In both races, the eventual winner led only one lap - the final one. It was a fitting prelude to what should be an exciting Daytona 500 on Sunday.