Chase Elliott wins first Can-Am Duel at Daytona

Chase Elliott on pole for the 500, also wins the first Can-Am Duel

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Daytona 500 pole sitter Chase Elliott held off late challenges from Jamie McMurray and Kevin Harvick to win this evening's Can-Am Duel 1 at Daytona International Speedway. It was the first win in the Daytona Duels for the driver of the No. 24 Napa Chevrolet.

McMurray made it a Chevy 1-2 coming home second, 0.156s behind Elliott. Harvick was the lead Ford in third with Brad Keselowski and Matt Kenseth rounding out the top-five.

"I just had a lot of steam under the hood," said Elliott after the victory. "The temperatures tonight being kind of cool it really suited our car well. Just a great way to start the season. I know it’s just a Duel win. We wished it counted towards the Playoffs. We would rather it be on Sunday, but at the same time it means a lot to me. It means a lot to our team. It means a lot to NAPA and having this car in NAPA colors tonight. I appreciate all our partners, Chevrolet, Hooters, Kelley Blue Book, Mountain Dew, all the folks that make it happen for us. We are excited about Sunday. I have a great car."

"We just kind of set out and wanted to race, not ride around," Elliott said after climbing out of his car in Victory Lane. "I think sometimes you ride around and you don't know what your car is like and if it's going to be the way you want it for Sunday. And you can also get yourself in trouble. We took chances and it worked out, so I'm excited for Sunday."

McMurray gave Chevrolet a 1-2 finish with a runner-up result in his No. 1 Chip Ganassi ride, while Kevin Harvick finished third in the Stewart-Haas Racing Ford. Brad Keselowski's No. 2 Team Penske Ford and Matt Kenseth's No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota rounded out the top five.

Keselowski led a race-high 28 laps. "We had a good night," Keselowski said. "We knew the 24 car (of Elliott) was going to be strong. It just didn't shake out like I hoped it would in some of those pivotal moments, but that’s part of it. … We're going to work on some things that make that possible."

Duel 1 race determined the inside row for Sunday's Daytona 5000 with Elliott locked into the top starting position, followed by McMurray (third), Harvick (fifth), etc. behind him.

The top 10 finishers received championship points, so race winner Elliott earned 10 points for the season, second-place McMurray nabbed nine, all the way to 10th-place Cole Whitt earning one point. The same system also applied to Duel 2.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA CHEVROLET SS – WINNER

THE MODERATOR: We're joined now by the driver who is currently the points leader of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, and that is Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 24 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, who won tonight's Canâ€'Am Duel race No. 1.

Talk us through that accomplishment.

CHASE ELLIOTT: No, it was definitely a great way to start the season. As I said on TV, I know it's just a Duel win. You obviously wish it was Sunday and counted towards the Playoffs, but it still means a lot to me. Means a lot to our team. Happy to have NAPA colors on tonight. Had some big steam under the hood, which is a huge factor in keeping us out front.

So glad we were able to race and stay aggressive and battle those guys. Hopefully we can dial it in just a little better for Sunday, give it another shot.

THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions.

Q. Chase, I know you're always very modest. Can you say that you feel like you should be considered a favorite for the Daytona 500?

CHASE ELLIOTT: Oh, I definitely think we have a shot at it. I mean, if I didn't feel that way, like I always say, I'd stay home. I feel like we have a shot on Sunday. I feel like we had a shot before we got down here.

Tonight's result hasn't changed my opinion on that. I'm looking forward to it obviously. You love to get that qualifying spot on Sunday, but we really earned it tonight, to start on the front row, which is even better.

Just a great way to start the season. Cool for our team. We're excited for Sunday and getting the season going.

Q. I think it was early in the race, either Alan or Eddie asked you about people drafting with you. You said, Same old, same old. Did you feel that got better over the course of the race? Do you feel like you'll get some help on Sunday?

CHASE ELLIOTT: Well, I think it just depends. Obviously, guys are going to do what they feel like is best for them. That's just the fact of life when it comes to racing.

You don't blame 'em for doing their own thing. Sometimes you just got to make your own â€'â€' kind of do your own thing, make your own way. You certainly have to have some people go with you at some point to move forward.

Definitely I felt like after that lap 25 caution, I'm not sure if it was how the lanes lined up, the lanes that opened up for us, that we were able to push our way up through there. The big thing is we had a good car.

I think as the race went along, a couple guys caught onto that and they thought by helping me they might help themselves.

It's all what you can do to help yourself. If they don't feel like helping is going to help them, they're not going to help you. That's just the way it is.

Q. You mentioned in Victory Lane that you learned a lot from Keselowski; said you haven't perfected things. One thing it seems is he's able to really block both lanes in a fluid manner. How comfortable are you doing that? How much more aggressive do you think it's going to be Sunday?

CHASE ELLIOTT: I mean, I really don't know that it changes a whole lot. Obviously the intensity is going to be up racing for a Daytona 500. I'm not sure. You just don't really know, I guess is the best way to answer that.

Because the way the lanes form, it's just power in numbers. It's a power in what cars are lined up in what row, how they're stacked against you, whether they're twoâ€'wide or threeâ€'wide behind you.

There certainly are guys that do a good job. Once they get out front they're tough to get by. We see that all the time at these places.

No, I don't think I have it perfected by any means. I learned a lot about it tonight. I got some great experience being able to stay out front in those final laps. I know it wasn't for a 500 win, but I feel like those guys were still trying to get some runs. I'm sure that will be amped up Sunday. I think it was similar to what you'll see.

Q. In a general sense, what did you pick up in learning about blocking tonight?

CHASE ELLIOTT: I feel like really one of the biggest things I picked up on is who the players were tonight, who is going to be good on Sunday, what cars to look out for.

I learned a couple things I'm going to keep in the back of my mind. That's the biggest thing. It's obviously very circumstantial. It's going to change time to time as you come back to these plate races. Some guys are going to get better, some guys are going to fall off.

It was good to learn about that. I'm eager to get back and see how good these guys do. I know with as good as our motor was running tonight, I feel like Dale is going to be tough.

THE MODERATOR: Chase, congratulations on the race win and good luck on Sunday in The Great American Race.

CHASE ELLIOTT: Thanks, guys. Have a good one.

JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 CESSNA/MCDONALD’S CHEVROLET SS- FINISHED 2^ND

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by the secondâ€'place finisher in tonight's Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Canâ€'Am Duel No. 1, Jamie McMurray, driver of the No. 1 Cessna Chevrolet for Chip Ganassi.

Jamie, exciting race out there tonight. Could you tell me just what it was like battling with the 4 there for the secondâ€'place finish?

JAMIE McMURRAY: Yeah, I mean, getting to have the caution with eight laps to go kind of calmed everything down. You go back to a restart, you know it's going to take two or three laps to get up to speed, get everything settled.

The fact I was on the bottom I felt was good. Seemed like the outside row would get split and be threeâ€'wide. So, the bottom would have a little more momentum for a few laps. I thought getting to restart third was a great place.

Honestly, I got a really good run going into three I think from the 6 car. I thought I was going to be able to have enough of a push to get beside the 24, but the leader, he just kind of kept pushing him further out. It was hard to break that plane and get beside him.

THE MODERATOR: We'll open up the floor for questions.

Q. Jamie, with running behind Chase tonight, obviously the leader has the opportunity to block both lanes and make moves. A lot of you guys, when you're up there, veterans, seem like you're very fluid, it's very smooth. Seems like with him, because he's still new to this, he still has a little bit to learn, a little bit less fluid. Can you talk about what you saw, and if this is the Daytona 500, does he get some of the breaks he got tonight going back and forth?

JAMIE McMURRAY: Yeah, I thought he did a really good job. I kind of understand what you're saying.

You know, when you're the leader, it doesn't really matter where you're running, you run 90% of the race looking in the rearview mirror. You're looking at the lanes, trying to decide which lane looks like it has the biggest run. Then also listening to your spotter, hoping he can verify what you're seeing.

When he says the opposite, you have to make a decision of which one to block. I thought Chase did an awesome job. It doesn't matter who it is, at some point we all make a bad decision out there. I made a couple tonight. Was fortunate it didn't cause a wreck. But that's what happens at places like this.

Yeah, I mean, I thought Chase did a great job tonight.

Q. I know points were on the line, but how much was that like preâ€'season football where people aren't going to show maybe everything they want to show for Sunday?

JAMIE McMURRAY: I would say that everyone raced as hard as they could. I did. It's a little different at a place like this. I think any time we get in the cars, you start driving, you race as hard as you can.

I don't think it's a fair comparison to football. It's quite a bit different. It's a race. It paid points. We're all here to race and do the best we can. I don't think it has anything to do with that, yeah.

Q. There were several comments about people thinking that the racing was perhaps a little better, more aggressive than last year. Did you notice any difference in that regard? Could points have played a role in that?

JAMIE McMURRAY: Yeah, I mean, I don't think it has anything to do with points. My opinion, before we came down here, we put a smaller plate on. I thought that was going to make it worse racing. Seems like the more power we have, the better we do.

But the most interesting thing that I saw tonight that I was encouraged by is the leader still has an advantage, but the cars in second or third or fourth and fifth, a couple rows back, were able to get pretty big runs.

Not everybody could get by the leader, but you were able to get pretty big runs and the leader was having to do a lot of blocking.

The other thing that was different to me is the top wasn't the place to be. At one point everyone started moving to the top. No one wants to do that. But I moved to the bottom, a couple guys went with me, we started making ground up. I thought that was great, the fact that it wasn't going to get single file. It tried to at one point. It only took three or four cars to get the bottom lane moving again.

It had nothing to do with the points. I don't know if it had anything to do with the plate. I think some of them are better than others. I don't know if anyone has the answer as to why.

Q. Jamie, I know that typically at a restrictor plate track, you say anyone can win. Does it feel to you that there are a lot more serious contenders, that it could be this team, that team, more so maybe than this year’s past?

JAMIE McMURRAY: Well, I think that the Penske cars are still the two. If you have to make a list, that's the top of the list. Both of those guys are really good plate racers and their cars are really good. It seems like Doug has done an incredible job with their engines again.

In the Clash, I kind of thought Ford was the best car. Tonight, I didn't see that. The 2 was good. The 22 was obviously pretty good. I thought that my car or Chase's car was really good. Obviously, Matt and Kyle are always really fast.

But it doesn't seem like there's a clear favorite. We come down here a lot of years. You kind of pick a guy. If he finishes, he's going to be there in the end.

I think there's 10 guys that have a legitimate shot to win this year.

Q. Tonight, was the first night that you had been in the car. You last practiced on Saturday. You put on a great show tonight without practice. Does it kind of show that maybe practice is a little bit overplayed?

JAMIE McMURRAY: Well, here and Talladega would be the exception to the rule. I think everywhere else we would like to have some practice. This is a place we've run the same setups. The rear springs are basically issued to you. I think you have like a 50â€'pound rate difference in right rear spring. The shocks are issued to you in the rear. There's not a lot of setup changes that happen here. The rules are what we've had forever.

This is a little bit different. I don't know that anyone was really worried when practice got rained out today. To me, if you weren't in the race on Sunday, then maybe it was going to be nice to get out and do a little bit of drafting because we haven't been in the cars in a little while. I didn't draft at all. When they threw the green flag in the race on Sunday, a couple corners just kind of feels like you've been in the car.

This is a little different scenario than what we would have at Atlanta and Martinsville and those places.

THE MODERATOR: Jamie, thanks for joining us. Good luck.

Race 1 Results

Pos	No.	Driver	Make	Behind	Delta	Laps	Best Speed	Best Time
1	24	Chase Elliott	Chevy	Leader	Leader	60	196.519	45.797
2	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevy	0.156	0.156	60	196.202	45.871
3	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	0.168	0.012	60	195.92	45.937
4	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	0.255	0.087	60	195.695	45.99
5	20	Matt Kenseth	Toyota	0.278	0.023	60	196.083	45.899
6	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	0.347	0.069	60	195.933	45.934
7	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	0.408	0.061	60	196.019	45.914
8	43	Aric Almirola	Ford	0.459	0.051	60	196.567	45.786
9	22	Joey Logano	Ford	0.466	0.007	60	196.382	45.829
10	72	Cole Whitt	Ford	0.485	0.019	60	196.881	45.713
11	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	0.59	0.105	60	196.515	45.798
12	19	Daniel Suarez #	Toyota	0.591	0.001	60	195.903	45.941
13	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	0.592	0.001	60	196.605	45.777
14	32	Matt Dibenedetto	Ford	0.674	0.082	60	197.208	45.637
15	37	Chris Buescher	Chevy	0.755	0.081	60	196.382	45.829
16	34	Landon Cassill	Ford	0.755	0.000	60	196.245	45.861
17	23	Joey Gase(I)	Toyota	1.314	0.559	60	196.635	45.77
18	83	* Corey Lajoie	Toyota	1.507	0.193	60	197.321	45.611
19	75	* Brendan Gaughan(I)	Chevy	4.597	3.090	60	195.976	45.924
20	27	Paul Menard	Chevy	-1	-5.597	59	196.399	45.825
21	55	* Reed Sorenson	Toyota	-12	-11.000	48	196.571	45.785