Wallace, Cindric Win Daytona Duels, Allgaier Drives JR Motorsports Into Sunday’s 500
Bubba Wallace, driver of the #23 McDonald's Toyota celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Duel 1at Daytona International Speedway. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)
It’s been a couple of years since 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace last visited victory lane, so you’ll have to excuse him for having a little trouble finding it after winning Thursday night’s 150-mile qualifying Duel 1 by .082-seconds ahead of Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron at Daytona International Speedway.
“I didn’t know whether to stop on the front stretch, where to go to victory lane,” admitted Wallace. “Two years hiatus, you lose memory a lot or really quick.
“To finally get a Duel win, I hope it’s the right stepping stone for accomplishing Sunday. Better yet, I’m tired of going over to (Ryan) Blaney’s house and seeing his Duel win trophy, and I finally got a win. (Teammate) Tyler (Reddick) got one last year. I was getting jealous. Now I got my own, and we’re good.
“All in all a good night for our team. I thought it was pretty cool just seeing how well the 23 (Wallace) and the 45 (Reddick) worked together and moving to that top lane forward together the whole night. That was really, really special.
“All in all a good night for the team.”
NASCAR Hall of Famer and JR Motorsports owner, Dale Earnhardt Jr. celebrates Justin Allgaier, driver of the #40 Traveller Whiskey Chevrolet qualifying for the Daytona 500 after the NASCAR Cup Series Duel 1 at Daytona International Speedway. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
It was a memorable night for JR Motorsports as Justin Allgaier raced his way into the starting lineup for Sunday’s Daytona 500 by finishing ninth, making a dream come true for team owners Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kelly Earnhardt Miller and her husband L.W. Miller. It’s the team’s first attempt to race in NASCAR’s Cup Series.
“Yeah, it’s hard to sit here and put it into words,” said Earnhardt, a two-time Daytona 500 winner as a driver. “It really is probably the toughest thing I’ve ever had to answer.
“Man, we have kind of tried to downplay how badly we want to race in the Cup Series. At least I have. It’s like one of them things where you are like, man, if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. I’m not going to make it drag down all the other great things happening in my world, but man, we got here, and we got a taste of it. Holy moly, yesterday was so disappointing. I didn’t know exactly how badly I wanted to do this or wanted to be a part of something like this until we started going through it.
“Yesterday was just so tough to understand something as simple as just being 8,000ths too slow,” Earnhardt continued. “It was really hard to understand and hard to accept.
“I’ve just been sitting here all day thinking about how badly I wanted this for all of us, and we asked Justin to go on this journey with us. And he as the driver has to shoulder a lot of the pressure and more pressure than anyone. (Crew chief) Greg Ives agreed to do this with us, and he has had to handle so much pressure to try to put this thing in the field. I wanted it for everybody that was feeling all of that.
“We love to race, and racing is hard, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. This was rough emotionally, but damn it, it’s fun when it works out.
“I cannot wait for Sunday, and we have a freaking Xfinity (Series) race to run (on Saturday). That’s going to be awesome. But we get to push a car on the grid Sunday for the first time ever and the biggest, most important race that I’ve ever known, and I can’t wait. Doing it with Justin, my sister, L.W., our family, our team.”
Austin Cindric, driver of the #2 Discount Tire Ford takes the checkered flag under caution over Erik Jones, driver of the #43 AdventHealth Toyota to win the NASCAR Cup Series Duel 2 at Daytona International Speedway. (Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)
Team Penske’s Austin Cindric edged Legacy Motor Club’s Erik Jones to win qualifying Duel 2. As the pair sped side-by-side towards the finish line, a massive wreck happened behind them, forcing officials to bring turn on the caution lights. Even though Jones was first to the finish line, NASCAR officials reviewed the moment the caution came out and determined that Cindric was leading at the time and was declared the winner.
“43 (Jones) had a great run, was able to get to the outside of us (Cindric and Penske teammate Joey Logano) there,” said Cindric. “Pretty slippery in (turns) 3 and 4. Not quite able to stay together. I feel like we still would have had the advantage if handling wasn’t a factor. I knew it was going to be super close at the line. Obviously it was.
“But, yeah, at the end of the day it’s kind of a swing of one point. It doesn’t change his starting position (for Sunday’s race), doesn’t change mine. You know, certainly proud of the effort. Happy I was able to race that one out and see what my car had for Sunday.
“You know, this is a multi-stage process, this whole weekend, and to be able to get a great read like we did tonight and give us some stuff to chew on for the next two days to get ready to try and do it all again and execute on Sunday.”
Austin Cindric, driver of the #2 Discount Tire Ford celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Duel 2 at Daytona International Speedway. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)
Locked into a front row starting position for Sunday’s race by virtue of qualifying second fastest in Wednesday night’s time trials, Cindric was fully aware he had a lot more to lose than gain by racing aggressively in his Duel.
“I think there’s a few aspects to it,” commented Cindric. “One, I think the points were the only thing I could use to justify racing from my crew chief’s perspective, from a strategy towards the season, the points definitely do matter for the season.
“I feel like we were able to check a lot of our boxes early in the race, but I think there’s a lot of trust involved too. I’m very thankful that my race team trusts me to go out there and do that because, yeah, I left last night saying, hey, can I race, can I race, can I race?
“As a competitor, that’s all I want to do. That’s all I’m here to do. Somebody is just going to have to tell me not to, which is totally fine. I understand.
“But I felt like we were able to kind of do it all tonight,” Cindric continued. “Yeah, you maybe look like a fool if things maybe don’t work out, but there’s some risk management involved. I think in a lot of ways the pros outweighed the cons for me.
“It’s easy for me to say, but having two days for the same group of guys to have to patch up a car, build another car, I have a lot of confidence in those guys. Easy for me to say, but, yeah, not having to talk about that. All in all, a lot learned for tonight and a lot gained. Certainly I had a lot of fun.”
“The 500, yes, it’s the big one. It pays the most, but it’s almost one of the 36. Now, driving down here, this is the only one that matters.”
After spending his own money to the tune of four zeros and one comma to secure a ride with Rick Ware Racing for the Daytona 500, Corey LaJoie can breathe easier as he raced his way into Sunday’s starting field with a sixth-place finish. No longer a full-time driver, LaJoie has a new appreciation for being able to race in this year’s 500.
“You almost take this race for granted when it’s just one of the 36 (races on the schedule), right, when every single one of your goals for the course of the year is a yearlong goal. It’s tournament of top 20, certain amount of top 15s, laps led, all the things. The 500, yes, it’s the big one. It pays the most, but it’s almost one of the 36. Now, driving down here, this is the only one that matters.
“Driving down here, not knowing if I’m going to drive the bus home on Friday morning or Monday morning, was eight hours of a little bit of stress. But I wasn’t really wearing that much stress, but I can tell you I’m wearing a lot of relief right now just because I know how hard those guys work over at RWR. Especially getting that 15 car ready for Tim Brown at the Clash, the 500 car takes an extra amount of time, and then going back to Atlanta next week - three weeks in a row is a heavy ask for those guys.
“Those guys deserve it. It certainly means a lot.”