2017 Daytona 500: Qualifying order and start time for Sunday

Chase Elliott is no longer a rookie and it showed. The second-year driver won the first of two Can-Am Duel Daytona 500 qualifying races Thursday night at Daytona International Speedway, while Denny Hamlin won the second qualifying race. The duels determine the starting lineup for Sunday’s race, the biggest on the NASCAR calendar.

Elliott won the Daytona 500 pole in single-car runs last Sunday, and was guaranteed to have the No. 1 starting spot as long as he avoided wrecking his car on Thursday. But Elliott, who won the Rookie of the Year award in 2016, looked nothing like a driver still seeking his first career Monster Energy Cup Series victory.

The 21-year-old not only passed two former Cup champions, Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski, but withheld late charges from both as well as a push from 2010 Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray, who finished second. Elliott is the first to back up a pole-winning effort with a duel win since Dale Earnhardt Sr. in 1996.

The son of NASCAR Hall of Famer and two-time Daytona 500 winner Bill Elliott, the younger Elliott looked a lot like his father as he held off pass attempts from Harvick, Keselowski, and McMurray by alternating between the outside and inside lanes that formed.

A year ago, Chase Elliott also won the Daytona 500 pole, but his race was short-lived. While running in a pack of cars, the No. 24 Chevrolet broke loose and spun through the frontstretch infield grass, tearing the front end off the car.

“It’s a great way to start the season for us,” Elliott said. “I know it’s just a duel win and it doesn’t count towards a win in the playoffs, but it still means a lot to me and it means a lot to our team. This is a great way to start the season.”

Although the win isn’t classified as official, Elliott does earn 10 points that apply to his regular season total. NASCAR altered how it distributes points over the offseason, with the top-10 finishers getting points on a 10-to-1 sliding scale.

McMurray finished second, followed by Harvick, Keselowski, and Matt Kenseth.

Brendan Gaughan and Corey LaJoie transferred into the Daytona 500. Reed Sorenson failed to qualify after contact with LaJoie sent him crashing into the inside wall just past the start/finish line. LaJoie accepted blame for the incident, but Sorenson found no consolation in LaJoie’s explanation.

“I guess he felt like he did what he had to do to make the race,” Sorenson said. “I hope he’s proud of that part of it. There’s a lot of pressure going in to making this race. It’s a very big deal for a small team like ours.”

###

Dale Earnhardt Jr. showed no rust after a seven-month layoff, dominating from the drop of the green flag and looking like he was going to storm to victory lane. But Hamlin, the defending Daytona 500 winner, upstaged Earnhardt’s comeback, passing Earnhardt with two laps remaining to take the victory.

During the early stages, Hamlin’s car appeared one of the few that could keep pace with Earnhardt’s No. 88 car. But Hamlin suffered a setback when he drove through too many stalls exiting pit road and had to fall to the rear of the field.

It wasn’t long before Hamlin returned to the front, positioning himself behind Earnhardt in the closing laps. Hamlin’s opportunity to pass Earnhardt came when a line led by Austin Dillon formed behind Hamlin giving him the needed momentum to mount a charge, which Earnhardt couldn’t block. That opening allowed Hamlin to get ahead and left Earnhardt on a proverbial island, sliding backward. Earnhardt finished sixth after leading 53 of a possible 60 laps.

“I don’t know what I could have done differently to defend that,” Earnhardt said. “Denny is so smart and he knows what he’s doing out there. He’s one of the better plate racers out there. Any which way I would have went, he was going to go the other way and probably get by me.”

Clint Bowyer and Kurt Busch, Stewart-Haas Racing teammates, finished second and third. AJ Allmendinger and Dillon completed the top five.

Allmendinger’s car, along with the cars of Chris Buescher and Martin Truex Jr., failed to meet the minimum height requirements during post-race inspection. All three must start Sunday’s race at the rear of the 40-car field, and the points Allmendinger and Truex earned are forfeited. Allmendinger would’ve received seven points, Truex four. No further penalties are forthcoming.

How the duel played out was a reversal of a year ago, when Earnhardt completed a nifty pass of Hamlin in their duel with six laps left to take away the lead and the win. Hamlin is seeking to become the fourth driver to win consecutive Daytona 500s.

Because Earnhardt qualified second, he will maintain that position in Sunday’s 58th running of the Daytona 500. Hamlin will start fourth.

Daytona 500 starting lineup