Five years after winning his first Budweiser Duel race, Kyle Busch took the checkers once again, by taking advantage of the opportunity given to him as other driver’s had problems during the green flag pit stops.
When asked how he had won the race, Busch answered, “Stay out front and try to hold everybody off behind you.” Busch also said, “Being able to get some experience behind the wheel of these things and understand exactly what they’re going to do, and try to figure out how and what to do to make that other lane go… we got to figure it out.
It was the second fastest Duel race in history with an average speed of 193.966 mph, second to last year’s second Duel race won by Matt Kenseth with an average speed of 194.175 mph. Unlike the first Duel race this 60 lap race was run without a caution flag.
With the white flag waving, Kasey Kahne, driver of the #5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet, and Austin Dillon, driver of the #33 Honeynut Cheerios Chevrolet stepped out of line rounding turn 1 in an attempt to challenge Busch, but their momentum stalled going down the back stretch. Busch went on to take the checkers with Kahne, Dillon, Clint Bowyer and Kenseth in the top 5.
Mike Bliss, driver of the #19 G-Oil/Plinker \Tactical Toyota, received a safety penalty, for having his window net down dropping him off the lead lap and resulting in his not qualifying for the Daytona 500 on Sunday.
Race leader Jeff Gordon, driver of the #24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet, after leading 38 laps, was penalized with a drive-through penalty for speeding entering pit road, also Ricky Stenhouse Jr., driver of the #17 Best Buy Ford, and Terry Labonte, driver of the #32 C&J Energy Services Ford, were penalized for speeding exiting pit road.
Ryan Newman spun while trying to enter the pits, with a handful of other drivers; Newman lost control of his car and slid across the track. Fortunately Newman was able to limp around the track without tearing anything up after his tire blew out from the spin. As a result Newman finished 2 laps down.
After the pit stops and penalties, Kyle Busch and Bowyer were at the front of the field. With the victory Kyle Busch gains the 4th starting position for the Daytona 500.
With the Budweiser Duel #2 race complete the field for The Great American Race, the Daytona 500 is set. The 55th running of the Daytona 500 will be televised on Fox, Sunday, February 24th with a start time of 1 p.m. eastern time.
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