Wondering how drivers perform in the Daytona Duels, which set up the starting grid for the Daytona 500? Here’s where to find out.
Average Finish
The graph below looks at drivers with average finishes of 17 or better, and only includes drivers who have competed in at least 3 Duel races.
- Bubba Wallace and Chase Elliott are on the low side in terms of data points, but we know both can get it done on superspeedways.
- Of the veterans, Logano and Kyle Busch both have average finishes below 7 over much larger numbers of starts.
- Anyone from Hamlin to the left is a good bet for a strong finish in a Duel.
Does Daytona Duel 1 Differ from Daytona Duel 2?
In the graph below, I’ve separated average finishes for Duel 1 and Duel 2 for each driver. Again, the numbers over each bar are the number of races included in that average.
- If a driver only has 1 or 2 races in one of the Duels, don’t expect much predictive power.
- Kurt Busch, who has closer to equal numbers of starts in each Duel, has similar averages.
- Hamlin has 8 starts in each Duel, but has an average finish of 6th in Duel 2, but 11.5 in Duel 1.
- Harvick has a similar pattern to Hamlin
- Truex, Jr., on the other hand, finishes better in Duel 1 than in Duel 2.
DNFs
Some drivers finish in the back and some drivers just don’t finish. Let’s see who has worse-than average numbers when it comes to completing races.
Even after 17 and 16 races, respectively, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin have managed to return their cars in one piece after their duels.
On the other hand, the drivers on the left side of the graph are probably not drivers you want to put too much money on to finish well, or to even finish the race.