The 2015 Budweiser Duels were a pair of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock car races that were held on February 19, 2015, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Both contested over 60 laps, they were the qualifying races for the 2015 Daytona 500. Hendrick Motorsports swept both races, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. winning the first Duel and Jimmie Johnson winning the second Duel.
Report
Background
Daytona International Speedway is one of six superspeedways to hold NASCAR races, the others being Michigan International Speedway, Auto Club Speedway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Pocono Raceway and Talladega Superspeedway. The standard track at Daytona International Speedway is a four-turn superspeedway that is long. The track's turns are banked at 31 degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at 18 degrees.
Practice
First practice (February 14) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 44.413 and a speed of .
Second practice (February 14) Michael McDowell was the fastest in the second practice session with a time of 45.153 and a speed of . Ryan Newman was forced to change engines after blowing one half an hour into the session. He will have to start from the rear in one of the Duel races. Martin Truex Jr. also dealt with engine gremlins due to a crack in his car's oil pan, but did not change engines.
Pole qualifying
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. For the first time in the history of the Daytona 500, NASCAR eliminated the traditional single car qualifying format for the pole qualifying and introduced the Formula One-style knockout qualifying format, first introduced in the 2014 season. Unlike the other tracks however, the pole qualifying consists of three sessions of five minutes each, first introduced in the fall Talladega race: NASCAR randomly split the field into two groups for session 1 (one group had 25 cars, the other had 24). Each group had its own five minutes of track time. The fastest 24 cars overall from either group will advance to session 2. After a ten-minute break, these 24 cars would get five minutes of track time for session 2. The qualifying times from session 1 would reset prior to the start of session 2. The fastest 12 cars in session 2 will advance to session 3. Following a seven-minute break, these 12 cars would then compete for the top two guaranteed spots in the final five-minute session. Again, the qualifying times from session 2 would reset prior to the start of session 3. 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 . Gordon felt that in the new qualifying format, "the driver finally gets to play a role". He also stated that he had "a fast race car" and that the pole position was "one of the most gratifying poles I've had, not just because it's my final Daytona". His teammate Jimmie Johnson will start right alongside in 2nd. In the first round of qualifying, Clint Bowyer tried to go under Reed Sorenson when he got hit in the rear by Carl Edwards and turned right into Sorenson. Both cars slammed the wall and collected Bobby Labonte and J. J. Yeley. Denny Hamlin may have taken some damage. The session was red flagged with a minute and 22 seconds left. After the red flag was lifted, no one was able to make it back to the line before time expired. Upon exiting his car, Bowyer vented his frustrations at the Daytona qualifying procedure.
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. Earnhardt's car was found to be too low on the left front, while the track bar on Hamlin's car was found to be beyond the maximum allowed. Both drivers expressed thoughts on Twitter post-penalties, with both looking forward to moving up the order in the Duels.
Qualifying results
Practice (post-qualifying)