Harvick Wins Duel No. 1 at Daytona

Kevin Harvick will start third in the Daytona 500 after taking home the trophy in the first Gander RV Duel at Daytona International Speedway.

William Byron started on the pole for the first Duel, and led some laps in the draft before ducking below the yellow line to drop to the back in an effort to save his car for Sunday’s race.

It was a fairly tame race with only one incident.

Jimmie Johnson made contact with Kyle Busch while the lead draft was passing a lapped car, causing Busch to spin towards the infield. Busch suffered minor aerodynamic damage, but finished 18th in the race, one lap down. It was the second incident Johnson has caused so far during speedweeks.

The race to make the Daytona 500 came down to the final laps.

An ailing Kyle Busch was able to push fellow Toyota teammate and Gaunt Brothers Racing driver Parker Kligerman in front of both Tyler Reddick and Ryan Truex in the closing laps to get the No. 96 driver in the Daytona 500. Kligerman wasn’t fast enough in qualifying, and being in front of both Reddick and Truex was his only means of making the Great American Race.

Harvick was able to hold off Ford teammates Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Paul Menard, who tried to pounce late in the race, to win the first race of the evening. Matt DiBenedetto finished fourth followed by Martin Truex, Jr.

Remaining results:

6th: Bubba Wallace

7th: Chris Buescher

8th: Jimmie Johnson

9th: Ryan Newman

10th: Ryan Preece

11th: Daniel Suarez

12th: Parker Kligerman

13th: Tyler Reddick

14th: Ryan Truex

15th: Landon Cassill

16th: William Byron

17th: Daniel Hemric

18th: Kyle Busch

19th: Matt Tifft

20th: Brad Keselowski

21st: Cody Ware