2022 Daytona 500: Keselowski, Buescher victorious in duels
By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — It was a big night for Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing on Thursday in the qualifying races for the Daytona 500.
It was maybe a bigger night for the Floyd Mayweather-owned The Money Racing Team.
And there was, in typical Daytona finish, one fairly hard crash, which was big for NASCAR’s new Next Gen car.
Most people left content following the races, except for JJ Yeley, who was passed on the final lap of his duel by Mayweather’s Kaz Grala, lifting Grala into the Daytona 500 and sending Yeley home.
And then there was Joey Logano, who misjudged a block of Chris Buescher and crashed on the final lap of their duel.
Here are three takeaways from the qualifying races at Daytona:
The RFK sweep
Buescher’s win in the second duel — he was ruled the leader when the caution came out for the damaged Logano car — followed that of his new boss and teammate, Brad Keselowski, in the first duel.
"We have good hot rods here," Buescher said. "They are fast, and they handle good."
After both cars failed to make the main event nearly two weeks earlier in the preseason Clash, Keselowski relished his win (as well as Buescher’s) and tried not to get sentimental in that his car carried a sticker honoring his father, who died during the offseason.
"I told my dad last year because I knew he was pretty sick and his prognosis was he wasn't going to make it through the summer. I said, ‘Dad, we're going to win the Daytona 500, and you saw how that went,’" said Keselowski, who crashed while battling for the lead a year ago.
"It's bittersweet that it didn't happen while he was still alive, but I'm still glad it's some success."
A fighting chance
Grala thought he wouldn’t make the Daytona 500 after a speeding penalty resulted in him being several seconds behind Yeley. But on the final couple of laps, the car Yeley was drafting with dropped out of the line and ended up pulling Grala in a draft passed Yeley on the final circuit.
"[My emotions] went from puke to puke — puking nervous to puking excited at the end," Grala said.
Yeley thought the driver, Daniel Hemric, did it on purpose to help a fellow Chevrolet driver.
"Just disappointed that if he was going to bail out of the road, just to do it and make it clean instead of slowing me down for a couple of laps," Yeley said.
Hemric said afterward that there was no intent to help Grala; he didn’t want to be in the mix of the lead pack as a lapped car.
"When they [in the pack] got to us, we’re going to the top and going to make sure we’re nowhere near anything if something goes south," Hemric said. "I had zero communication on the other side."
In the second duel, Greg Biffle raced his way into the 500. Yeley and his Motorsports Business Management teammate Timmy Hill failed to make the field.
Crash test dummy
Logano felt like a dummy after his move that cost him the win in the duel, as well as a race car. The team did have a backup car, but body panels and suspension pieces are at a premium right now, and drivers were concerned Thursday about tearing up equipment.
"Driver screwed up," Logano said. "That’s really all there is to it. I thought I was still clear, and the run came a lot quicker than I thought it would.
"I tried to block it a little bit and just got a tag in the left rear, and off it went."
Several NASCAR engineers who designed the Next Gen were looking at the Logano car to see how it reacted to the hard crash into the wall.
"I got out, and I feel fine," Logano said. "That’s a good sign. I hit the wall fairly hard and got out, no problem.
"That part is good if there’s a positive to it. I don’t want to be the crash test dummy but definitely was today."
Bob Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!
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