Toyota Flexes Its Muscles in Daytona Duels
Credit: DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 15: Tyler Reddick, driver of the #45 Nasty Beast Toyota, takes the checkered flag to win the NASCAR Cup Series Bluegreen Vacations Duel #1 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2024 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)
After Wednesday night’s NASCAR Cup Series single-car qualifying runs at Daytona International Speedway, Toyota was nowhere to be found in the top half of the field. But with wins in each of Thursday night’s Bluegreen Vacations Duels, Toyota drivers make up the second row of the starting grid for Sunday’s Daytona 500.
23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick admitted to feeling better about Sunday’s race after pulling off a last-lap pass to win the first of the 150-mile Duels.
“Maybe a little bit, yeah.
“Definitely, yeah. We didn’t really know where we were going to fall with this car in qualifying trim. Certainly that was a little bit off from what we expected.
“I think a lot of the drivers remained confident going into racing conditions that the car would work better in the draft. I personally didn’t really partake in that until late. I saw Martin Truex and Erik Jones working together good on the outside lane. They were able to be pretty aggressive. When we get later in this race, I’ll be able to be more aggressive with my pushes than in the past, and it worked out.”
Credit: DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 15: Christopher Bell, driver of the #20 DEWALT/Interstate Batteries Toyota, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Bluegreen Vacations Duel #2 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2024 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
Christopher Bell held off the Ford of Austin Cindric to win the second 150-miler after passing Denny Hamlin, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, on the backstretch of the final lap. For Bell, it was a relief to know that the new Camry performed well in race conditions.
“Well, I certainly think that the Duels went better than expected. But going into this weekend or this week, we certainly expected to qualify a little bit worse than what we did last year, but definitely not the back of the pack like we did. That was very alarming.
“After Wednesday we just didn’t know what to expect going into the Duels, the whole Toyota camp. Duel 1 we saw a lot of promise with all the cars, all the Toyotas having a lot of speed in that race. Tyler ended up winning the thing, which was really good. Then, obviously, Duel 2, Bubba (Wallace) was really fast. All the Toyotas once again were really good.
“I think it’s a good showing for the new Camry on the superspeedways. We certainly didn’t plan on qualifying well, but our hopes were that it would race well, and it certainly did.”
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