Matt Kenseth snatches victory in second Gatorade Duel at Daytona

Kenseth won a caution-free second duel, where only a few drivers had a fighting chance at the end of the race as the pack split into small groups; a result of drivers electing to pit for fuel under green at different times.

Biffle led a group of cars that left it as late as possible to take two tyres and fuel, emerging up front after the stops cycled through and narrowed the number of victory contenders down to only five cars. Kenseth hooked up with Jimmie Johnson's Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with two laps to go and passed Biffle with an aggressive move just before the white flag waved.

"Jimmie Johnson gave me a huge push there and really worked nice for me the whole race," said Kenseth after handing team owner Jack Roush his first duel victory in the year in which his team celebrates its 25th anniversary.

"Without that push it never would've got there. Greg lost his drafting partner. We were able to separate him and the #78 [Regan Smith] and we had such a big run that Greg was kind of a sitting duck."

Smith finished second for Front Row Motorsports, giving up any victory hopes on the last lap when he made contact with Johnson on the backstretch, losing momentum and allowing Kenseth to pull away. Five-time Cup champion Johnson was third ahead of Richard Childress Racing's Elliott Sadler, while Biffle got shuffled down to fifth after leading 39 out of the 60 scheduled laps.

Dave Blaney finished 12th and took the first transfer spot for the Daytona 500, while Joe Nemechek claimed the final one despite finishing a lap down.

Michael Waltrip, Mike and Kenny Wallace, Bill Elliott, Robert Richardson Jr and JJ Yeley all failed to make the field.

Kenseth's victory means three Roush Fords will start on the front two rows of Sunday's Daytona 500.

Results - 60 laps:

Pos  Driver                Team/Car                   Time/Gap
 1.  Matt Kenseth          Roush Fenway Ford        46m21.000s
 2.  Regan Smith           Furniture Row Chevrolet    + 0.209s
 3.  Jimmie Johnson        Hendrick Chevrolet         + 0.475s
 4.  Elliott Sadler        Childress Chevrolet        + 0.531s
 5.  Greg Biffle           Roush Fenway Ford          + 1.949s
 6.  Joey Logano           Gibbs Toyota               + 9.363s
 7.  Kyle Busch            Gibbs Toyota               + 9.494s
 8.  Jeff Gordon           Hendrick Chevrolet         + 9.623s
 9.  Ryan Newman           Stewart-Haas Chevrolet    + 20.532s
10.  Kasey Kahne           Hendrick Chevrolet        + 20.647s
11.  Mark Martin           Waltrip Toyota            + 20.852s
12.  Dave Blaney           Baldwin Chevrolet         + 21.151s
13.  Martin Truex Jr       Waltrip Toyota            + 30.448s
14.  Kurt Busch            Phoenix Chevrolet           + 1 lap
15.  Clint Bowyer          Waltrip Toyota              + 1 lap
16.  Bobby Labonte         JTG Daugherty Toyota        + 1 lap
17.  Joe Nemechek          NEMCO Toyota                + 1 lap
18.  Casey Mears           Germain Ford                + 1 lap
19.  Robert Richardson Jr  R3 Toyota                  + 2 laps
20.  Bill Elliott          NEMCO Toyota               + 2 laps
21.  Kenny Wallace         RAB Toyota                 + 3 laps

Non-finishers:

     Tony Raines           Front Row Ford               9 laps
     David Reutimann       BK Toyota                    6 laps
     JJ Yeley              Robinson-Blakeney Toyota     4 laps