Kasey Kahne Wins Gatorade Duels Race 2

Kasey Kahne Victory Lane

Race number two had some anticipation building as tires became the concern from watching the first of the two qualifying races for the Daytona 500, with Jimmie Johnson working some magic to take his tires further than anyone else. Some speculated that his very loose race car was a blessing in disguise, taking some load off the front right tire. However, even Tony Stewart said that Jimmie is probably the only guy who could make that work.

With several cars relegated to the back of the field due to practice crashes, including Joey Logano, Montoya shared the front row with polesitter Dale Jr., and Kurt Busch and Matt Kenseth in the row behind.

Junior jumped out ahead of Montoya at the start, and we didn't see the 3 wide running in the opening laps as was the case in the first race.

Another Photo Finish

A larger group of ten drivers needed to race their way in for Duel number two. Scott Speed had the head grid position of the group in sixth, with Labonte sitting a few spots back in tenth.

Boris Said started and parked his car, knowing he was in the field, and wanting to save his car for the race.

Montoya drove past Junior for the lead a few laps later. The front of the pack shuffled around a bit with more or less the same group of drivers trading spots.

Dale Jr. ecountered tire problems from rubbing bodywork, and dropped out of contention, finishing in 27th spot.

After the only yellow on lap 27 when Gilliland got into the wall, they came back to the green with Kenseth in the lead, followed by Montoya, Kenseth and Kahne, with Speed and Labonte racing their way in a bit further back.

Montoya had a problem on the second green lap after the yellow and got stuck in the middle and went right to the back of the pack inside half a lap, finally settling in 19th position, with Kurt Busch taking the lead.

Sam Hornish was showing a lot of improvement and running in the leading group, and solidly in the top five for much of the race.

On lap 37, Casey Mears made the middle line work for him and shot forward several spots to move into a qualifying position, but then the other go-or-go-home drivers shuffled around battling for their spot in the Daytona 500 race day field.

Tony Stewart sat back and watched carefully, and then moved into 4th place, looking at third with the pack bunched up very tightly, and Montoya managing to work his way back up to 11th with 13 to go.

With 10 to go, the field started to gap out just a bit with Stewart getting a good push from Hornish to move him into third.

With Vickers dirt-tracking the car around the outside, he took the lead from Busch with 6 to go.

Michael Waltrip looked on nervously from the broadcast stage, as he could still make the field on his qualifying speed depending on where the other go-or-go-home drivers finished.

Vickers' loose car finally got him into the wall just a bit and dropped back, moving Stewart into the lead, with Kahne and Hornish behind.

Hornish's car went very loose and he dropped down the apron and played it safe and parked it.

Montoya moved into 5th with 2 laps to go, battling his way back to the front.

Kahne squeaked past Stewart who set him up with a push to slingshot even with Kahne, setting up another photo finish. Stewart edged past, but Kahne took it by a nose using the same bottom line that Johnson used on the first race.

Scott Speed raced his way into the race, and allowed Michael Waltrip to make the race on his qualifying speed after all.

Gatorade Duels Race 2 Results