Tyler Reddick won the first of Thursday’s pair of Bluegreen Vacations Duel races at Daytona International Speedway. The No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota driver passed Kyle Larson down the backstretch on the final lap to take the lead and hold off the rest of the field.
Simultaneously, on the bell lap, Jimmie Johnson passed JJ Yeley off Turn 4 to lock into Sunday’s Daytona 500 (2:30 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX Deportes, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Yeley will not compete Sunday after coming up short against Johnson and missing the field.
Chase Elliott finished second, followed by his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman in third. Carson Hocevar and Erik Jones completed the top five.
Daniel Suárez, Joey Logano, Ty Gibbs, Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher rounded out the top 10.
With 11 laps to go, Johnson spun in a multi-car wreck that included fellow Daytona 500 winners Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Austin Dillon. Those three drivers continued, but Daniel Hemric suffered the worst part of the wreck after hitting the outside wall and will likely move to a backup car for Sunday.
Christopher Bell took the checkered flag in the second duel race, holding off the hard-charging Ford of Austin Cindric who made a daring move in Turn 3 on the final lap to pass Harrison Burton.
Kaz Grala nabbed the final transfer spot into the Daytona 500 by just 0.067 seconds over BJ McLeod. McLeod will not race on Sunday.
Denny Hamlin, John Hunter Nemechek and Burton completed the top five in Duel 2. Zane Smith, Brad Keselowski, William Byron, Chase Briscoe and Justin Haley rounded out the top 10.
On Lap 49, a massive wreck occurred just past the start/finish line as Kyle Busch gave a push to Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet. The push turned Byron into Ryan Blaney, who collided hard into the wall and triggered an 11-car pileup. Keselowski, Noah Gragson, Briscoe, Riley Herbst, Burton, Bubba Wallace, Haley and McLeod were also among those in the incident.
