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Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano shared the wins in the NASCAR Duel races at Daytona as Ford’s new-for-2019 Mustang swept the top three spots in both qualifying races.
Harvick dominated the first race, leading 44 of the total 60 laps.
He took the lead during the early round of green flag pitstops and ran untroubled.
Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron, who secured pole position for the 500 with last Saturday’s qualifying session, led the opening 16 laps and was shadowed by team-mate Jimmie Johnson for much of the race until Byron dropped out of the pack just after half-distance.
Byron had attempted to move back to the front of the field with Ricky Stenhouse Jr after dropping back during the pit cycle but instead pulled to the bottom of the track to conserve his car for the season opener.
The Hendrick man eventually finished the race in 16th place out of the 21 runners while Stenhouse battled with fellow Ford driver Paul Menard for second behind Harvick.
Stenhouse eventually edged Menard for second by just 0.007s at the finish line. Matt DiBenedetto was a surprise fifth in his first race for Leavine Family racing, beating 2017 Cup champion Martin Truex Jr, Darrell ‘Bubba’ Wallace Jr, and Chris Beuscher.
Johnson finished eighth, despite causing the only caution period across both races when he spun Kyle Busch in an incident similar to his Clash collision with Menard.
Harvick had the potential to sweep both Duel races in a largely single-file finale. But a late charge from reigning Cup series champion Joey Logano secured the Penske man victory.
Logano began the final lap of the second race in fourth but got a push from Penske team-mate Ryan Blaney that allowed him to pull off a shock victory.
Another of Bowyer’s team-mates, Aric Almirola, completed Ford’s double top-three sweep with Denny Hamlin, who ran in second for much of the second part of the race, in fourth.
Kurt Busch made the most of the last-gasp shuffle in positions to finish in the top five, ahead of Blaney who could not capitalise on Logano’s late move.
Chase Elliot, who has won a duel race in each of the last two years, could only manage an eighth place finish ahead of Austin and Ty Dillion.