February 16, 2023 | By Lee Spencer

Almirola provides Duel sweep for Ford Performance at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—Patience paid off for Aric Almirola in a wild Bluegreen Vacations Duel at Daytona.

While the Hendrick Chevrolets dominated qualifying on Wednesday, Fords swept the features on Thursday with the driver of the No. 10 delivering the fourth Duel win for Stewart-Haas Racing.

Almirola’s second Duel victory in the second qualifier gave Ford their fourth-straight win and ninth checkered flag in the last 12 qualifiers.

"Daytona is such a special place to me," said the Tampa native. "I grew up sitting in those grandstands dreaming about racing here. I want that one on Sunday, though. My boss (Tony Stewart) up in the booth during that first Duel, he said, 'I've won this race three times, but yet to do it on Sunday.'

"I know Sunday is the big one. We're going to keep focused on that one. The job is not finished."

Almirola was able to avoid incidents and maintained a 0.122-second lead over defending Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric at the finish. Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski and Corey LaJoie rounded out the top five.

Kyle Larson led the field to green with Almirola grabbing the point on the second lap. The first caution was called for debris on Lap 7 allowing the field to pit for fuel—and Conor Daly’s team to adjust a wicked handling car.

And then it was game on.

Kyle Busch took the lead on Lap 12, traded the point with Larson two laps later—and then took command. The driver of the No. 8 held serve for 26 additional laps before Daniel Suarez hooked him on the backstretch sending Busch into the grass and triggering a melee behind the pack.

"Just a lot of pushing and shoving for a few laps straight,” said Busch, who was finished for the night. “Finally got the left rear and it hooked it to the right.”

Travis Pastrana, Justin Haley and Austin Hill joined Busch in the garage. Based on his qualifying effort on Wednesday, Pastrana advanced to his first 500.

But Hill was not so lucky. The 28-year-old Xfinity driver competing for Beard Motorsports will have to try again. Hill's misfortune enabled Daly to finish 17th and lock in for his first 500. Despite a myriad of obstacles presented to the IndyCar driver and the No 50 TMT Chevy, Daly said he was grateful for the opportunity.

"Well, we were inherently unlucky for the last 36 hours, but we got lucky," said Daly. "I wish I could have said that I drove it in on pure pace, but it was just crazy.

"When we went out there, the car was bouncing around. I had no idea what was going on. I thought the drivetrain was broken, and Tony just made it better every time. We got lucky with the yellows to try to get some experience, but it is pretty crazy.

"This race, I've watched it for so many years and so much crazy stuff can happen, and thankfully we were on the right side of the craziness. It's pretty amazing."

Larson finished sixth followed by Todd Gilliland, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, and Ryan Preece. Unlike the first Duel which had four lead changes among three drivers, the second qualifier featured 15 lead changes between six drivers.