The Bluegreen Vacations Duel at Daytona is essentially a qualifying event for the Daytona 500 on Sunday, February 20th. The Duel at Daytona splits the field into two races. Duels are a traditional way of setting the field for the Great American Race, considering it’s the first event of the schedule, and there’s a lot of turnover and change every offseason.
Aric Almirola won last year’s Duel 1 while Austin Dillon captured Duel 2. The format of the Duel starts with a Wednesday qualifier, and the top two fastest times get locked in to the front row for the Daytona 500. Therefore even after winning Duel races, Almirola started 3rd and Dillon 4th in the 2021 Daytona 500.
That starting position was beneficial to Dillon, who finished 3rd in the 2021 Daytona 500 to capture 48 Cup points. Almirola did not fare so well, lasting only 13 laps into the race before being part of that massive six-car collision that knocked him out for the day, finishing with just 3 Cup points.
Bluegreen Vacations Duel Information:
- Track: Daytona International Speedway
- Location: Daytona Beach, Florida
- Length: 2.5-mile asphalt
- Distance: 60 laps
- TV: Fox Sports 1
- Radio: Sirius/XM Channel 90
On-Track Schedule:
- Wednesday, February 16th – single-vehicle qualifying to set the Duel field order. Odd number qualifiers go to Duel 1 while even number qualifiers go to Duel 2
- Thursday, February 17th – Duel 1 7:00 PM ET, Duel 2 8:45 PM ET (approx.)
Bluegreen Vacations Duel Betting Analysis
All 36 chartered cars are in this field, as are Greg Biffle (NY Racing), Noah Gragson (Beard Racing), Kaz Grala (Team Money), Timmy Hill (MBM), Jacque Villanueva (Hezeman’s Racing), and JJ Yeley (MBM).
This is a much bigger event for the unchartered vehicles because there are just four open spots in the Daytona 500. Three unchartered cars will race in each Duel with two spots in the Daytona 500 being awarded in each – with some simple math, that means one unchartered car is going home from each Duel.
The importance of the Duel is a point of argument for race fans and pundits. It was definitely beneficial for Dillon to start at #4 after his Duel 2 win as he came up in 3rd place at the 2021 Daytona 500. Duel 1 winner Almirola crashed out after just 13 laps even though starting at the head of the pack (#3) is supposed to provide less traffic.
Plus, Denny Hamlin finished 13th in Duel 1 and started the 2021 Daytona 500 in the #25 spot. He went on to win stages one and two on Sunday before finishing in 5th overall. Michael McDowell finished 9th in Duel 1 and went on to win the 2021 Daytona 500, even starting in the #17 spot.
Expect some very clean racing, especially from the chartered cars in both of the Duel events. It’s early in the week and the season, which means teams don’t have their full arsenal of cars or even parts available in case of a wreck/damage.
Bluegreen Vacations Duel Betting Picks and Analysis
Odds for each of the Duel races are not released until Wednesday night after qualifying. Joey Logano has won this event in two of the last three years, so he will have some value; Hamlin is a 3X winner (’08, ’14, ’17), while Kyle Busch is also a 3X-er and his brother Kurt also captured a Duel in 2011.
What we want to look towards here is a young star that just needs to capture a Daytona 500 checkered flag to cement his legitimacy. The first driver that comes to mind is Chase Elliott, who was the runner-up last year to McDowell. William Byron would fit that description, too, winning a Duel in 2020 and having the 2nd best Wednesday qualifying round last season.
The odds are available even ahead of Wednesday’s qualifying, but they are near impossible to predict, considering we don’t even know which Duel a driver is in. That’s why ‘the field’ is a +100 favorite because anything else is literally just drawing a name out of a hat.
Denny Hamlin / Chase Elliott as individual winners of each Duel is +2800, the next highest odds after the field. An Austin Cindric / Ricky Stenhouse “dual Duel” win would pay out +8000, the highest odds.
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