Kyle Busch capitalized on a Jeff Gordon pit road speeding penalty to capture the second Budweiser Duel qualifying race for Sunday's Daytona 500.
Gordon started on the pole for the race by virtue of qualifying second during last weekend's pole qualifying session and kept Busch, Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth and others at bay until the race's first set of pit stops.
As Gordon led the field onto pit road, he was penalized for speeding entering pit road in sections four and five of the race. It was a penalty that puzzled Gordon, who said he was under his prescribed tachometer reading while he drove to his pit at the far end of pit lane.
"We've got a major problem with the tach then, I was way under," Gordon radioed to his team after he was informed of the penalty, which put him a half a lap behind.
That handed the lead to Busch, whose team had audibled as he entered his pit stall. Instead of taking two tires as they had planned, crew chief Dave Rogers made the decision to take fuel only, and it put Busch at the head of the pack, a position he held for all but one lap the rest of the way. He'll start fourth in Sunday's Daytona 500.
On the final lap, Kahne was able to get around Kenseth on the backstretch for second, but didn't have enough time or momentum to make a move on Busch before the checkered flag. Much like the first duel race, this race was dominated by cars on the outside line of the banking. But unlike the first race, which saw a late caution bunch up the field and provide a flurry of multi-lane racing to the finish, this race never got one.
And that caution flag would have been Gordon's only hope of getting back within sniffing distance of the lead. The race's only moment that could have been caution-worthy happened just before Gordon's speeding penalty. As he was entering the pits behind Gordon and others, Ryan Newman's car wheel hopped under braking, and he spun towards the outside wall at the entrance to the tri-oval. But because the field was spread out due to the green flag pit stops and he was able to continue on his own, it didn't fly.
Gordon finished 12th.
Mike Bliss, who had to serve a black-flag penalty early in the race because his window net fell down, finished 22nd and joined Brian Keselowski as the only two drivers to miss the Daytona 500.
