Daytona 500 Bids for JJ Yeley, Chandler Smith End in Duel 1
JJ Yeley has mastered the art of putting himself in position to make the Daytona 500 in the closing laps of the Duel Qualifiers at Daytona as the driver of the No. 44 NY Racing Chevrolet, unfortunately, he's suffered from heartbreaking endings two years in a row.
On Thursday night, Yeley saw his bid to make it into the Daytona 500 field for the first time since 2015 come up just short as Justin Allgaier knifed his No. 40 JR Motorsports Chevrolet to the outside lane in the waning moments of the race. While Allgaier would find clear track and would get enough of a push to climb to a ninth-place finish, Yeley's lane stalled out and he would end up finishing 17th.
"Unfortunately, didn't make it, there. I was just trying to play a little chess match there," Yeley said after the race. "If I would have followed [Allgaier], there, I was going to be stuck. And with [Truex] going to the back, I thought maybe he was just going to ride. Once he pushed to the outside and got three-wide, and got clear of [Allgaier], and I just thought I needed to go where they're not."
So, Yeley went where they weren't, and ultimately it didn't work out.
"The bottom lane really had good momentum there with five to six to go, and I thought I was going to be in really good shape. But I just didn't quite have the pace that those guys did," Yeley explained. "I was just kind of stuck with the guys in front of me, where I couldn't really make anything happen. I just put all of my eggs in one basket running the bottom. Hoped that there was a shift going down the backstraightaway that was going to slow those guys down. That typically happens. Unfortunately, it did, but just not enough to let me catapult into a transfer coming off of [Turn] 4."
Last year, Yeley was knocked out of a Daytona 500 starting spot by a last-lap pass from Jimmie Johnson. This year, he got out-manuevered by Allgaier, who was driving a car owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Going toe-to-toe with the big dogs of the sport is nice, but its not much of a consolation for Yeley, who badly wants to race in the Daytona 500 again.
"No, unfortunately not because it doesn't pay the same as making the Daytona 500. That's the goal, that's the effort."
Joining Yeley on the list of drivers eliminated from the Daytona 500 in the opening Duel on Thursday night was Chandler Smith, the driver of the No. 66 Garage 66 Ford Mustang Dark Horse.
Smith, who struggled to find speed with his race car on Wednesday was ultra-fast in the opening laps of Thursday's race. Smith knifed his way from the 22nd starting spot to third-place over the opening 13 laps of the race. However, after completing the 13th lap of the 60-lap Duel, Smith attempted to squeeze in front of Justin Haley, the driver of the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, and he simply wasn't clear.
After being evaluated in the infield care center, Smith explained that he simply lost track of where Haley was as his digital rear view mirror malfunctioned early in the race.
"Just honestly didn't know where [Haley] was. My digital mirror stopped working after we got on the backstretch of the first lap," Smith explained. "[I] couldn't see out of my left side mirror unless they were 10 feet to my left side. I couldn't really see where Justin was."
The two drivers would make contact, and Smith would go hard into the outside wall. In the melee, Smith would see his race come to an end, and with him, Haley and Helio Castroneves would see their cars go back to the garage with the assistance of a tow truck.
Video. Chandler Smith, Helio Castroneves Wreck Out of Duel #1 at Daytona. dark. VIDEO
It was a bummer for Smith, who had rocketed the underdog No. 66 car, which is owned by Carl Long near the front of the field. After climbing to third, he was simply just ready to get in line and take it easy to bide his time for the back half of the race. He never got that chance.
"And [I] just got third in line on the outside, cleared the bottom, and I started to notice [Chase Elliott] and [Josh Berry] were starting to fade bottom a little bit, which was going to make me lead the top. But I really wanted to get to the bottom and just start riding it out," Smith said. "I got all of my track position. I was happy with it, and I started fading bottom and didn't get down quick enough, honestly."
Smith shouldered the full blame for the incident, which ended his Daytona 500 hopes, and likely sent Haley and Castroneves to backup cars.
"So, it's on me, and I apologize," Smith said with sincerity. "There's a lot of torn up race cars tonight that were really good. Quality race cars that got put together. A lot of hard working men and women back at the shops in the offseasons were working on those cars, and I hate that for them. But unfortunately, that's Daytona."
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Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.