Daytona 500: Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano victorious in Gander RV Duels

The field for the 2019 Daytona 500 is set after the Gander RV Duels took place to determine places 3-40 on the grid on Thursday. Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano were victorious in Duel 1 and Duel 2, respectively.

The first two spots on the grid are held by Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron and Alex Bowman, who had the fastest times in the first qualifying session.

They also took part in the Duels, with Byron, the pole-sitter, finishing in 16th and Bowman, the reigning pole-sitter from last year’s race, finishing in 13th. Byron only needed to get through the Duel without damaging his car, as he would lose pole position if he had to go to a backup car.

Byron had a near-incident around Lap 30 while he he was hanging around in fourth place, and that was all the action he wanted for the day, quickly dropping back to nearer the back of the pack with nothing to race for beyond more practice time on the track.

Harvick won the first of the Duels, ahead of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in second and Paul Menard one thousandth of a second behind him. All of the top three finishers were driving Fords, while the Toyota of Martin Truex Jr. navigated unfriendly territory to secure fourth ahead of the Chevrolet of Chris Buescher. Byron wound up finishing in 16th after dropping back.

The race saw Kyle Busch spun out as a result of contact from Jimmie Johnson. Busch was able to avoid damage, but had to pit for fresh tires. Parker Kligerman was the notable who raced his way into the Daytona 500 edging out Ryan Truex and Tyler Reddick.

In the second race, Bowman didn’t spend much time up front, in the same position as Byron — he just needed to make it through. He dropped himself down to 16th before half of the 60 laps had elapsed. The second Duel ended with Logano on top, moving from fourth to first on the very final lap of the race, taking the top spot from Clint Bowyer. He was assisted by his teammate, Ryan Blaney, in the surprise late move.

The Duels are a 60-lap, 150-mile race around Daytona International Speedway to determine the full starting grid for the Daytona 500. The inside row is set by the first Duel, and the outside is set by the second. So the winner of the first Duel starts third and the winner of Duel 2 starts fourth.

The first Duel is made up of odd-numbered finishing positions from qualifying, in order, while the second is made up of the even-numbered positions.

The Daytona 500 is set for Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX. Full results from both duels can be found below.