Johnson wins Budweiser Duel 2

Jimmie Johnson

Jimmie Johnson used the power of the Hendrick Motorsports Chevy engines, just as Dale Earnhardt Jr. did in Duel 1 by easily holding off all challengers to win the 2nd Budweiser Duel race at Daytona Thursday night ahead of Kyle Busch who had nothing for him with his Toyota. Greg Biffle finished 3rd ahead of Carl Edwards, now driving a Joe Gibbs Toyota. Ryan Blaney rounded out the top-5.

"What a race car," said Johnson driver of the #48 Lowes Chevy in Victory Circle, "This thing is bad fast."

Locking in spots for the Daytona 500 in the second Duel: Reed Sorenson, Ryan Blaney, Mike Wallace, Justin Allgaier, Danica Patrick, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, David Gilliland, David Ragan and Austin Dillon. These drivers finished sixth through 15th in the second Duel. With Johnson winning, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished 16th to improve his starting spot slightly since he had already made it in on qualifying speed.

Danica Patrick spins

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Patrick nearly missed the Daytona 500 after a late wreck with Denny Hamlin looked to leave her in jeopardy, but she rallied during a green-white-checkered finish from 18th to 10th to make the field for Sunday's race.

Patrick and Hamlin had a discussion on pit road after the race.

For the 2nd time this week Denny Hamlin got too close to Danica Patrick's rear bumper and she spun around. Danica told Hamlin that "you got too close to me, you cannot do that." Hamlin said he gets that close to all drivers, but she is the only one who loses control.

Hamlin said to her, "it's not my fault your car is setup too loose Danica."

The wrecks we saw in Duel #1 continued in Duel #2 with a four-car crash on Lap 36 that involved Jeb Burton, Alex Bowman, Sam Hornish Jr. and Austin Dillon. Contact between Burton and Hornish initial the crash that then saw Hornish go into Bowman while Dillon went into the grass and suffered damage. The wreck brought out a red flag. Burton and Bowman's chances of making the Daytona 500 were over as a result of the wreck. A red flag was displayed so that crews could clean up the track.

In Duel #2, David Ragan brought out the caution on Lap 20 as he spun in Turn 4. Ragan's 2014 owner points were transferred to new teammate Cole Whitt meaning Ragan needed to race his way into the Daytona 500 and with his 14th-place finish, he made the field. Josh Wise also had electrical issues in the race.

Drivers that did not make the 43-car field for the Daytona 500: Alex Bowman, Jeb Burton, Justin Marks, Ron Hornaday Jr., Brian Scott and Josh Wise.

Quotes

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 7 TOY STATE/NIKKO RC CHEVROLET SS – Involved in a multi-car accident on lap 36
ANY IDEA WHERE THIS PUTS YOU FOR TRYING TO MAKE THE (DAYTONA) 500?
“I have no idea. I’m just really thankful for Nikko RC and Toy State and everybody at TBR (Tommy Baldwin Racing) for having faith in me and being part of Team Chevy. We had the fastest car I’ve ever had here. It’s my own fault. We caught the No. 11 (Denny Hamlin) there and I tried to go to the outside of him and the No. 19 (Carl Edwards) was behind me so obviously the No. 19 went with his teammate. I was hung out, got shuffled to the back and shouldn’t have been there to begin with. I take responsibility on that one. That is my fault. I shouldn’t have been there, but hopefully we are still in the show. If not we will get them at Atlanta."

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]WHAT HAPPENED, AND CAN YOU EXPRESS YOUR EMOTIONS?
“I have no clue. I don’t know what happened. I got cleaned out in the rear there and spun around and hit by a bunch of cars. It’s really unfortunate for everyone at Nikko RC and Toy State. They put a lot into this and we had an amazing race car. It was so fast. All the guys at TBR (Tommy Baldwin Racing) worked so hard all winter on this car. Fortunately our backup in the trailer is 100 percent just as good this one or better. But I don’t know if we’ll make the race."

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – Race Winner
CONGRATULATIONS ON ANOTHER TRIP TO VICTORY LANE.
“It’s a special night. What a race car. That car is mad first. I’m stoked for my teammate (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) to win the first duel. We won the second, and Jeff (Gordon) and I have the front row locked down. It’s been an awesome week for all our Hendrick Motorsports cars. A big shout out to all the guys in the shops and a big shout out to my awesome sponsor Lowe’s. I’m just happy to start out the week like we have."

DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING TO KEEP IN THE BACK OF YOUR MIND FOR THE RACE?
“I learned a lot. To be able to get out there and race and be out there with good cars – those Gibbs cars are awfully strong. So to size myself up against them and see what kind of runs they can create and try to put on me. At the start of the race, I was behind those two trying to figure out to get by them. All in all, it was a very productive night."

WERE THERE ANY CLOSE CALLS OUT THERE FOR YOU?
“I wasn’t in a position to worry. It’s so funny. They drop the rag and you forget about protecting your race car. It never went through my mind. It was all about going after this trophy and we got it done."

CHAD KNAUS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS
ANOTHER DAYTONA WIN FOR YOUR GUYS.
“What a great, great effort from the 48 and 88 shop. To be able to qualify as well as we did and come out here and win both of the 150s out of our shop, we’re really proud of that. Everyone at Hendrick Motorsports did a great job. Jimmie did an awesome job today. He managed the draft really well. It was a lot of fun. We enjoyed it."

DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS – Finished 10th
WHAT HAPPENED IN YOUR CONVERSATION WITH DENNY (HAMLIN)?
“First and foremost the GoDaddy car is in the (Daytona) 500 and that was what we wanted to accomplish today. Kurt (Busch) my teammate was great help at the end I went high and he was right there with me. We got a finish out of it. But I mean the incident with Denny (Hamlin) I am all about learning. I’m all about doing the right thing, but he said he needs to run close to move forward. Well you are turning me and it happened in practice too when he cut across my rear bumper. It pulls the back end around. That is why it looked like I tracked down, but I was just going down the straightaway. Here we are in the race and I’m seeing him in my mirror and he’s so tucked up underneath me, so close. I get being close, but he is then going to my left rear. It just gets it light and it spun around. I don’t want to have these issues, but if we are going to have these issues then we are going to have to deal with them. We can’t be putting ourselves out of the race on someone else’s expense. Nothing has happened to him. I like to race hard, but there is no point in being out there wrecking each other. I just wanted to let him know that I was disappointed of course. We were all in just a fine situation there in the duel running eighth or so. We were running fine and there is just no reason to get it to the point where it turns the car. Ultimately 10th and we are in the (Daytona) 500 and the stress is off. Now the other stress is on for 500 miles."

IS THIS SOMETHING YOU ARE GOING TO CARRY ON THE CONVERSATION WITH DENNY (HAMLIN) LATER? 
“I’m sure. Like I said I’m friend with Denny. Literally his bus is right next to my bus. I’m sure that this conversation will have to go on. But I don’t think that he understands and clearly I have my opinion and he has his. I don’t think we are on the same page about it. He thinks he needs to be close and I said ‘you turned me.’ So, I know that Tony (Stewart) came down and said you need to watch the replay, which is good to hear because my boss obviously was sitting there on my pit box and saw it. I’m going to go back and look at it too, but when I watched the one from practice he cut down and when he cut down it pulled my bumper around and got us sideways. We are going to have to figure it out because this isn’t going to end well."

JUSTIN ALLGAIER, NO. 51 BRANDT CHEVROLET SS – Finished 9th:
GOOD RUN FOR YOU GUYS IN RACING YOUR WAY IN
“Yeah, we focused really hard on just trying to make sure we got both cars in. We knew that we didn’t want to fall back on time and our points from last year. Two great H Scott Motorsports race teams here and just really proud of everyone on this Brandt Chevrolet race team tonight. Man, it’s fun. It’s also stressful and all the nerves are going up through your body through those last couple laps, but man it’s a blast."

WERE YOU AWARE OF THE TROUBLE BEHIND YOU?
“Yeah, but we were fortunate enough to run far enough up front all night to stay ahead of the melees. Then at the end I knew it was going to be a kind of a disaster. At the last green/white/checkered, I stayed at the bottom and probably could have made a few spots but I knew if we stayed on the bottom we weren’t going to lose enough positions to fall out of the top-fifteen. That was the ultimate goal. These guys did a great job and we will get it tuned up and I know come Sunday we will have a really strong No. 51 Chevy."

REED SORENSON, NO. 44 GOLDEN CORRAL CHEVROLET SS – Finished 7th:
IN A CAR THAT YOU DIDN’T EVEN HAVE A PRACTICE LAP IN WHILE THE TEAM WAS PUTTING IT TOGETHER IN NORTH CAROLINA AND FINISHED IT HERE… YOU’RE IN THE DAYTONA 500.
“I’m real proud of these guys. Monday morning, we didn’t know if it would be possible to pull it off. But we did. I’m extremely happy for all the guys back in Charlotte that worked on this car and all the work these guys had to do when they got here. They had a lot left and did an awesome job putting it together. It’s a big deal for a team like this to make the Daytona 500. I’m proud of everyone, and now we can have fun. We have nothing to lose in the race and we’re gonna give it all we’ve got."

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]DO YOU WANT TO KNOW IF YOU’RE IN OR OUT AS LAPS CONTINUE TO CLICK AWAY?
“I could kind of tell where I was. I didn’t really change how I was going to drive the car. There at the end, I wanted to stay with the guy in front of me, and we actually gained some spots on that last restart. You can kind of tell that you’re close to the top-10 and if it’s even close to that point you’re going to give it all you’ve got anyway. I’m just proud of this race team and having Golden Corral in the Daytona 500."

MARTIN TRUEX, JR. NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW RACING CHEVROLET SS, FINISHED 5TH:
ON HIS RACE: "We were a fourth-fifth place car in that deal there. The two Gibbs cars and the No. 48 were a little stronger than we were. We have to get to work and get this thing as good or better than we gad Saturday night or better."

WAS IT CRAZY OUT THERE? "It wasn't bad. Guys were making bold moves and being aggressive, but they were being cautious about it and nobody was making dumb moves like cutting people off. It seemed like everybody was pushing the envelope without stepping over that edge which is a hard balance, but the guys were doing a good job and it was fun racing with them."

IT HAS BEEN A GOOD SPEEDWEEKS FOR YOU SO FAR, TALK ABOUT HOW FAR THIS TEAM HAS COME: "It feels great. I said Saturday night it is the most fun I have had in a race car in a long time. The last year and a half has been tough with all the racing stuff; then last year being tough on the track. Then last fall with what went on with Sherry (Pollex, long-time girlfriend) and having to go through that all winter. It is fun to get back to the track. Things are getting back to normal. Our cars are running fast, and I'm in a good place right now having fun!"

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