Kurt Busch wins again in Duel one

The Penske driver worked in tandem with Furniture Row's Regan Smith and managed to remain ahead of him coming out of the final corner of the 60-lap event, as Busch swept both races he has entered at Daytona this last week after winning Saturday's non-points Budweiser Shootout.

The Duel was decided in a green-white-chequered finish after the engine on Michael McDowell's car blew up a handful of laps from the checkered flag. Before that, the race unfolded mainly under green-flag conditions, the only incident taking place on lap two when Tony Stewart turned around his Stewart-Haas team-mate Ryan Newman while working in tandem out of Turn 2.

The long green-flag stretch made pitstops key, as drivers working in tandems had to agree on driving onto pit road simultaneously in order to prevent being left out without a drafting partner when rejoining. This led to a group of eight cars split in four pairings opening more than a 15-second gap to those who either struggled to find the right drafting partner or failed to time their pitstops in the right way.

The final caution brought many back in contention, but still those who had previously been fighting it out at the front were the main contenders for victory. Once the green flag waved for the final time, the original pairings rejoined after momentarily breaking up as most drivers restarted beside their drafting partner. Smith pushed Busch's Dodge all the way and into the lead, breaking away from their pursuers ahead of the final lap.

Out of the final corner Smith's car was already overheating and as he tried to break out of line to take the lead, Busch made the right moves which prevented the 2008 rookie of the year from getting beside him.

"I've just been in the right place at the right time," said Busch. "To be in those positions you've got to have the right drafting partner and I had that today with Regan Smith, had it with [Jamie] McMurray on Saturday night.

"But you can't be in those positions if you're not in a great racecar... The engine department knows that they're going to still bring us even more for Sunday's race.

"So I'm really excited but I can't get ahead of myself. This is Daytona and this place can jump back and bite you pretty quick. We're going to ride this wave, we've made the right decisions so far adapting to the rule changes, but right know I just feel like I know nothing about the new draft.

"We had 24 cars here racing on Saturday, we had 24 again today but we're going to have 43 cars on Sunday and it's going to be a different game."

The highest ambient temperatures of the week, rising above 20 degrees celsius, meant that added with the new cooling restrictions implemented by NASCAR ahead of the race, drivers had to keep a close eye on temperature gauges, most of them pushing for a maximum of four laps in the initial portion of the race.

However in the final laps many spent longer stretches pushing their drafting partners - Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth eventually figuring out how to do so for longer than any other tandem while working together to finish third and fourth.

JJ Yeley finished best of those who were not qualified for the race already, thus locking up his way into Sunday's event. Two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip also secured a place on the grid for the race that will mark the 10th anniversary of his maiden Sprint Cup win.

Pos  Driver                 Team/Car                     Laps
 1.  Kurt Busch             Penske Dodge                 62
 2.  Regan Smith            Furniture Row Chevrolet      62
 3.  Kevin Harvick          Childress Chevrolet          62
 4.  Matt Kenseth           Roush Fenway Ford            62
 5.  Kasey Kahne            Red Bull Toyota              62
 6.  Juan Pablo Montoya     Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet  62
 7.  AJ Allmendinger        Petty Ford                   62
 8.  Mark Martin            Hendrick Chevrolet           62
 9.  Paul Menard            Childress Chevrolet          62
10.  Ryan Newman            Stewart Haas Chevrolet       62
11.  Jimmie Johnson         Hendrick Chevrolet           62
12.  Tony Stewart           Stewart Haas Chevrolet       62
13.  Dale Earnhardt Jr      Hendrick Chevrolet           62
14.  Brian Vickers          Red Bull Toyota              62
15.  Bill Elliott           Phoenix Chevrolet            62
16.  Bobby Labonte          JTG Daugherty Toyota         62
17.  JJ Yeley               Whitney Chevrolet            62
18.  Kevin Conway           NEMCO Toyota                 62
19.  Joe Nemechek           NEMCO Toyota                 62
20.  Dave Blaney            Baldwin Chevrolet            62
21.  Marcos Ambrose         Petty Ford                   62
22.  Andy Lally             TRG Chevrolet                60
23.  Michael McDowell       HP Toyota                    53

Retirements:

     David Gilliland        Front Row Ford               40