The 2016 Can-Am Duels were a pair of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock car races held on February 18, 2016, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Both contested over 60 laps, they were the qualifying races for the 2016 Daytona 500. Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the first Duel race and Kyle Busch won the second Duel race.

Report

Background

Daytona International Speedway, where the races were held.

Daytona International Speedway is one of six superspeedways to hold NASCAR races, the others being Michigan International Speedway, Auto Club Speedway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Pocono Raceway and Talladega Superspeedway.^[11] The standard track at Daytona International Speedway is a four-turn superspeedway that is 2.5 miles (4.0 km) long.^[12] The track's turns are banked at 31 degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at 18 degrees.^[12]

Practice

Pole qualifying

Chase Elliott, seen here at Road America, scored the pole for the Daytona 500.

Qualifying for the Daytona 500 is different from any other race weekend because the starting lineup for the race – except for the two drivers that post the two fastest timed laps in the final round of qualifying – isn't set on qualifying day. It sets the lineup for the two duel races the following Thursday.

Unlike qualifying at non-restrictor plate races, qualifying at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway consists of two rounds of cars being sent out one at a time to make a single timed lap. The fastest 12 advance to the final round to run for the pole position.

Chase Elliott scored the pole for the race with a time of 45.845 and a speed of 196.314 mph (315.937 km/h).^[15] He said that today was "a very, very cool day. I don’t know that this opportunity has sunk in yet, much less sitting on the pole for the Daytona 500. I think the big thing is just the team and the Daytona 500 qualifying is about the team guys and the effort they put into these cars and it’s nothing special I did, it’s really what kind of work they did this off-season to make it happen."^[16]

After qualifying seventh and being all but guaranteed into the Daytona 500 based on speed, Ryan Blaney said that he "wasn't really too nervous going into today. I knew we had a really fast race car. We just had to do our job and we did it and we just had to lock ourselves in. I really wasn't feeling any different than I do any other day."^[17]

Likewise, Matt DiBenedetto – who is also all but guaranteed in on his speed after qualifying 24th – said that he could "sleep well, finally. I was really nervous all night. This is just a testament to the hard work from the guys on my team. Two-hundredths of a second. I'm really thankful, thankful to be racing in my first Daytona 500, most importantly. I'm really thankful and blessed to be here.”^[18]

Martin Truex Jr. was unable to post a time over a roof flap issue.^[19] The Stewart Haas Racing cars of Kevin Harvick and Brian Vickers had their times disqualified after their track bars failed inspection.

Practice (post-qualifying)

Races

Race 2

First half

Start

Matt Kenseth led the field to the green flag at 9:02 p.m. He pulled ahead of teammate Kyle Busch to lead the first lap. Unlike the first Duel race, the bottom line disappeared and the field formed a single-file train by the fifth lap. After Ryan Newman led the second pack of cars back up to the lead 11 cars, Martin Truex Jr. jumped in front of him and reformed the bottom line. However, the line lost momentum and merged with the top line. Running with debris on his grille, Kenseth let Busch go by him in turn 1 to get it off and Busch took over the lead on lap 25. Kyle Busch hit pit road on lap 39 and handed the lead to Aric Almirola. He pitted the next lap and the lead cycled back to Busch.

Second half

Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth and Martin Truex Jr. on the final lap in turn 2

With six laps to go, Jimmie Johnson broke out of line and caused the single-file line to form multiple lines before reforming into a single line. Eventually, Kenseth tried to break the line up again, but the field remained in place. With two laps to go, Casey Mears ran out of gas, nearly caused a wreck amongst the leaders and broke up the single-file train. The final lap saw a multi-car wreck in turn 1 that ended the race and gave the win to Busch.^[25] Robert Richardson Jr. raced his way in, while David Gilliland and Reed Sorenson failed to qualify.

Results

Pos	Grid	No.	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps
1	2	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	60
2	10	1	Jamie McMurray	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	60
3	5	41	Kurt Busch	Stewart-Haas Racing	Chevrolet	60
4	4	19	Carl Edwards	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	60
5	8	95	Ty Dillon	Circle Sport – Leavine Family Racing	Chevrolet	60
6	11	42	Kyle Larson	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	60
7	14	10	Danica Patrick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Chevrolet	60
8	22	14	Brian Vickers	Stewart-Haas Racing	Chevrolet	60
9	12	93	Matt DiBenedetto	BK Racing	Toyota	60
10	16	46	Michael Annett	HScott Motorsports	Chevrolet	60
11	17	38	Landon Cassill	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	60
12	19	35	David Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	60
13	3	48	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	59
14	21	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Furniture Row Racing	Toyota	59
15	15	47	A. J. Allmendinger	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	59
16	1	20	Matt Kenseth	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	59
17	6	13	Casey Mears	Germain Racing	Chevrolet	59
18	18	26	Robert Richardson Jr.	BK Racing	Toyota	59
19	9	43	Aric Almirola	Richard Petty Motorsports	Ford	59
20	13	83	Michael Waltrip	BK Racing	Toyota	59
21	20	40	Reed Sorenson	Premium Motorsports	Chevrolet	56
22	7	31	Ryan Newman	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	31
Unofficial race results

Media

Notes

References