2015 Budweiser Duels
[12] The standard track at Daytona International Speedway is a four-turn superspeedway that is 2.5 miles (4.0 km) long.
The pole qualifying took place at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday, February 15, a week prior to the Daytona 500 race itself.
Unlike the other tracks however, the pole qualifying consists of three sessions of five minutes each, first introduced in the fall Talladega race: The top two times in the final qualifying session will be locked in the front row of the Daytona 500 starting grid, while the other 41 starting spots would be determined by the two Budweiser Duels the following Thursday.
In what will be his final Daytona 500 start, Jeff Gordon won the pole with a time of 44.711 and a speed of 201.293 mph (323.950 km/h).
[17] The cars of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Denny Hamlin failed post-qualifying inspection and will start from the rear of the field in their respective Duel races.
[20] During this session, there was a four car wreck on the backstretch that involved Michael Annett, Jeb Burton, Denny Hamlin and Danica Patrick.
[21] Hamlin felt that Patrick had intended to block his path, stating that a driver has "to give a little bit of extra room in practice" and that if he "had to guess, she probably saw in her mirror that I was going down there and tried to stay in front of me".
Michael Annett was forced to drop to the end of the longest line because his crew was over the wall too soon.
Kenseth used the bottom line and jumped in front of Gordon to take back the lead on lap 26, just ahead of the race's second caution when Johnny Sauter crashed in the tri-oval, following contact with A. J. Allmendinger, while Aric Almirola also picked up some damage to his car.
[24] Sauter stated that he was "just riding along" and that he was "trying to mind my business" before the contact with Allmendinger, with the point of impact being "in the left rear quarter panel".
[24] Michael McDowell dropped to the end of the longest line, for the restart on lap 33, after his crew was over the wall too soon.
The third caution of the race flew on lap 51 when Trevor Bayne got loose, came down on Kyle Larson and hit the wall in turn 1.
The second race started 18 minutes late at 9:19 p.m. with Jimmie Johnson leading the field to the green flag.
Ragan had cut across the nose of Justin Allgaier and got turned down onto the apron, making contact with the inside wall.
Austin Dillon destroyed his splitter driving through the grass trying to avoid the wreck, which caused the race to be red flagged for five minutes.
Denny Hamlin gave Danica Patrick a push which turned her around and collected Brian Scott and Bobby Labonte.
Scott failed to qualify for the Daytona 500 as a result, while Labonte relied upon a past champion's provisional to get into the race.
In a green–white–checker finish, Johnson held off a last lap charge by Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards to win the race.
[27] After the confrontation, Patrick told reporters that she had "no explanation for that", while also stating Hamlin was in the wrong by believing "that he's taking the air and getting it off the spoiler, and he's not squared up either".
