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CUP: Kenseth Captures Second Duel
Matt Kenseth scored a dramatic victory in the second Gatorade Duel...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted February 23, 2012   Daytona Beach, FL
Matt Kenseth passed his Roush Fenway Racing teammate Greg Biffle on the last lap to win the second Gatorade Duel qualifying race at Daytona International Speedway on Thursday.

Kenseth led only two laps, but it was the last one that paid the money and it showed that the Ford NASCAR Sprint Cup teams continue to be strong, as they have been all the way through Speedweeks.

The 2003 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion was pleased to rebound after getting wrecked last Saturday night in the Budweiser Shootout. The victory not only was Kenseth’s first in a Gatorade Duel, it was the first for team founder and co-owner Jack Roush, as well.

"It's always really fun to win, no matter what kind of race it is,” said Kenseth, who won the Daytona 500 in 2009. “Obviously half the field, it's not a points race, so it's not like winning the Daytona 500 or Phoenix or something. But it's still a big win for us. We've never been able to win one of these races down here, Shootouts or 150s. We've been trying for a long time, so it feels good to have everything go right, have everything line up and be able to win that race. It feels good.”

“Painfully, it's been brought to my attention this is this the first Duel we've won in 25 years,” said Roush. “I'm certainly embarrassed about that. ... But Matt did a super job. Matt likes to hang around the front of these fields; not everybody agrees with that. But Matt likes to be hanging around the front of the field. It paid a dividend today."

Racing their way into the Daytona 500 in the second Duel were Dave Blaney and Joe Nemechek. SPEED analyst Kenny Wallace struggled with fuel pressure in his RAB Racing Toyota and was unable to transfer into the 500, finishing 21st.

Unlike the first Duel, Thursday’s second race was a much calmer affair early on, with the race going green the entire way.

Most of the field pitted between laps 38 and 42, setting up a late-race shootout.

Biffle, who qualified second for the Daytona 500, led 36 of the first 55 laps and was out front as the race wound down.

But with one to go, Kenseth took the lead passing Biffle at the start-finish line and pulling Jimmie Johnson behind. Johnson and Regan Smith made contact on the backstretch, with Kenseth winning, ahead of Smith, Johnson, Elliott Sadler and Biffle.

Matt Kenseth, team co-owner Jack Roush and the No. 17 team celebrate in victory lane at Daytona International Speedway following Thursday's second Gatorade Duel qualifier. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
“We just had a big run there,” said Kenseth. “Jimmie Johnson gave me a huge push there and that really worked nice for me the whole race there. Without that push, it would never have gotten done. Greg lost his drafting partner. We were able to separate him and the 78 (Smith), and we had such a huge run that Greg was kind of a sitting duck.”

Biffle was philosophical about the end-of-the-race pass.

“The car drove really good overall,” said Biffle. “It got a little dicey there at the end. I could have probably blocked a little bit more than I did, but that’s not the time to block right there for that win.”

For Blaney and Nemechek, the last two drivers to race their way into the 500, transferring to the big race was huge. For one thing, last place in the 500 is expected to pay $275,000, which for small teams is a meaningful amount of money.

“You don't want to come down here and miss this race,” said Blaney. “We got too good a team, too good a race car to miss it. ... I felt like we had the team and the car to make it the whole time. I wasn't worried about that side of it. But when you can't make it on qualifying day, anything can happen today. You can have a flat tire. Anything can happen.”

“I know from being the driver and the owner, how much it costs to come down here,” said Nemechek. “I mean, it's just incredible. If you don't make this race, I mean, you never recover from it. It just has you behind all year. So I know from one aspect on what it does. Making this race, it definitely starts our year out right. But basically it just helps pay some of the bills we already spent to get this year going.”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.
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