Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney and Others’ Unfortunate Duel Debacle Hampers Their Daytona 500 Odds

“This zone Chevrolet is FAST. Ready to roll off P4 in Duel 2 tonight,” keyed in 2-time Cup Series champion, Kyle Busch, hoping to punch his playoff ticker with an early win and snag his first-ever Daytona 500 win. That was until a vicious wreck during the Thursday night race, which changed everything. Unfortunately, the second Duel of the “Great American Race” went down in flames as Busch along with his former KBM driver, the reigning champion, and seven others were collected in a mid-race incident.

It’s not often that “The Big One” appears in the Thursday duel races on Daytona Speedweek but when reigning and defending Cup Series champion, Ryan Blaney fell victim to the vicious wreck, NASCAR nation was stunned to react. The #12 Ford, along with at least 10 cars, were involved in the wreck when the field went haywire, leaving Blaney and Busch to start Sunday’s action in a backup car.

Duel 2 disaster claims the #8 Chevy of Kyle Busch after the fiery wreck at Daytona

As the Cup Series extravaganza returned to the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway, drivers were back on the iconic circuit, competing in the Bluegreen Vacations Duel 2 when the violent crash in lap 47 resulted in a deadlock with Team Penske driver Blaney’s No. 12 Ford Mustang Dark Horse crashing out in flames.

Kyle Busch, his former KBM protege, Brad Keselowski, and SHR‘s new driver, Noah Gragson, along with seven, all involved in the wreck at the pack, went bonkers on the speedway. The high-speed crash got the #8 of Busch, #12 of Blaney, and #10 of Gragson out of contention after Thursday’s wreck. The incident took place when the #24 HMS car of William Byron made contact with Blaney, bumping him in the rear to spring him out, only to collect several others from the oncoming traffic.

The sudden bump got the #12 Ford of Blaney into the wall, turning into a fiery mess while Busch, who was coming up behind, couldn’t slip the mangle and ended up wrecking the RCR Chevy. With both of the driver’s primary cars totaled and rendered out of contention, they will have to scope for a win using their backup cars along with Gragson, and Daniel Hemric while others including the #6 driver, Keselowski, Austin Dillon, Riley Herbst and Justin Haley will make the effort with repaired racecars.

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Byron, who also got wrecked, will use a backup car as he resumes his hunt for Sunday’s 66th annual Daytona 500; confirmed Bob Pockrass in a tweet that read, “Byron going to a backup car as the door bars were damaged in the wreck last night.”

Blaney vents out his frustration as Busch and Keselowski tick off the avalanche

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The 60-lap night feature was nothing like what the community anticipated it to be. Blaney was fifth, exiting turn 4 when he pulled to the outside of William Byron for fourth place. But what ticked off the avalanche was a slight miscalculation from the veteran Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch who caught up to the #24 car, not noticing it decelerating.

The horrific wreck got the #12 Ford on fire and the safety crew rushed to the driver’s aid before he was rushed to the medical facility.

Blaney, reflecting on the debacle, did not mince his words, saying, “It comes from awful pushes by people.”

Sick of paying for other’s mistakes, Blaney, after being released from the medical clearance, got straight down to the point. He said, “Pissed. I’m pissed. I’m sick of getting right-reared here by someone else’s awful push …, we have a backup car for the 500. Did everything right tonight, and now we have to work our a** off the next two days trying to get a 500 car ready, so I’m pissed and I have every right to be pissed.”

As a result of the incident, Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch, Noah Gragson, Daniel Hemric, and William Byron will all be forced to backup cars.

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