Photo Credit: Mike Mercurio
Matt Kenseth would hold off an impressive move on the last lap by Kevin Harvick and Kasey Kahne to win the first of the two Budweiser Duels at Daytona International Speedway.
Lap 1 Dillon and Biffle side-by-side for the lead. Dillon ahead by a car as Earnhardt and Biffle are side-by-side for second.
Lap 4 Dillon leads Earnhardt Ambrose Harvick
Lap 12 Dillon leads Earnhardt Ambrose Harvick Allmendinger Gilliland Whitt Wise Logano Stewart
Lap 14 Kenseth starts a line on the bottom while the top five run single-file.
Lap 15 Dillon leads Earnhardt and Ambrose while Kenseth and Harvick are side-by-side. Kenseth moves a little head and Harvick slams down behind Kenseth. Earnhardt slides down in front of Kenseth and takes the lead from Dillon. Earnhardt leads Kenseth Harvick.
Lap 16 Sorenson has to bring his car to pit road as the engine doesn’t sound good.
Lap 17 Earnhardt leads Kenseth Harvick Almirola
Lap 18 Earnhardt leads as Kenseth and Almirola are side-by-side for second. Down the back, Earnhardt pulls ahead with Kenseth and Harvick in toe.
Lap 24 Earnhardt and Harvick side-by-side for the lead
Lap 25 Earnhardt leads Kenseth Kahne Biffle
Lap 28 Kenseth takes the lead from Earnhardt
Lap 29 Kenseth leads as Earnhardt and Biffle are side-by-side
Lap 32 Kenseth leads Earnhardt Ambrose
24 to go Kenseth leads a group down pit road including Ambrose Biffle Harvick KyBusch Stewart. Earnhardt to the lead
23 to go Earnhardt leads the second group down pit road ahead of Kahne Stenhouse Newman Whitt.
20 to go Kenseth leads with help from the lap car of McDowell. Harvick runs second with pack two.
18 to go Harvick chases the lap car out so he is on Kenseth’s bumper. Kahne runs third followed by Ambrose Almirola Wise Kligerman
12 to go Kenseth leads Harvick
10 to go
9 to go Kenseth leads Harvick Kahne Ambrose Earnhardt Newman Logano Vickers Patrick Allmendinger
5 to go Logano pulls out of the single-file train to o for the lead.
4 to o Kenseth leads Harvick Kahne Earnhardt Ambrose
FL Harvick pulls out, Kahne makes it three-wide
Kenseth wins ahead of Harvick by 2 one-hundreths of a second, Kahne third by 6 one-hundreths of a second. Ambrose. Earnhardt. Wise. Almirola. Gilliland. Newman. Stewart. Whitt. Bifle. Patrick. Bowman.
To the house: Vickers, Logano, Kligerman, Dillon, Stenhouse, KyBusch, McDowell, Nemechek, Sorenson.
Dillon is of course locked in to the front row pole spot via his qualifying effort last Sunday.
With Stewart locking himself in, that opens up the champion’s provisional to Kurt Busch
