DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Tony Stewart was able to cruise to his victory in the first Gatorade Duel and Matt Kenseth made his move on teammate Greg Biffle on the last lap to pick up the win in the second, rather uneventful, Gatorade Duel #2.
Tony Stewart took the checkered flag under caution after a last lap crash involving Danica Patrick, a Stewart-Haas Racing teammate. Patrick’s number five GoDaddy.com Chevrolet was sent sliding into the backstretch inside wall after contact from Aric Almriola in the 43 Ford.
“We just had a great racecar. We had a great racecar since we got here, especially when I messed up the car for the Shootout, all three teams dug in together and got us a car put back together that almost won the Shootout the other night was a testimony to how hard this organization has worked.” Stewart said.
When asked about Danica’s crash Tony said “I didn’t see how it started. I saw in the mirror on the last lap, saw her car making a hard left there. Didn’t know what’s the start of that was.”
“I thought she did a pretty good job. I think I’ll get a better shot to understand exactly how her race went when I get to see a replay of the race. The little bit I could see, I though she did a good job. There wasn’t any doubt in my mind she would do that.” Stewart added.
Patrick will go to a backup car for the Daytona 500.
Matt Kenseth was able to get by Roush-Fenway Racing teammate, Greg Biffle, on the last lap when Biffle moved to block Kenseth and Kenseth, with a big push from Jimmie Johnson, dove to the inside of Biffle to take the lead and the victory.
“Well we were going so much faster that we were going to go by him regardless. I think that was his only hope, is to try and get up the track, try to line my front bumper up where I had to push him. The problem was, I was going too fast. Even if I wanted to slow down, which I didn’t want to on the last lap, I couldn’t have.” Kenseth said.
With the win Stewart will start third and Kenseth fourth in the Daytona 500.
Six drivers, Michael Waltrip, Kenny Wallace, Robert Richardson, Jr., JJ Yeley, Mike Wallace and Bill Elliott did not qualify for the Daytona 500.
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