DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Bubba Wallace has celebrated his first win of the 2025 Cup Series season. He won Thursday night's opening Duel race at Daytona International Speedway while Justin Allgaier locked into the show as one of the remaining open drivers.
The 23XI Racing driver had one of the best cars in the field. He spent the entire race battling for the lead while teammate Tyler Reddick pushed him from behind.
Wallace lost the lead to Ty Dillon late, but he worked his way back to the front of the pack and took the white flag as the leader. He then held off the field on the final lap and won a Duel for the first time in his career.
Bubba Wallace wins Duel No. 1 at Daytona! pic.twitter.com/dVYLy7QyGo
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 14, 2025
"I've wanted one of these Duel wins for so long," Wallace said after the race. "All my buddies got one. Tyler got one last year. I was pissed off. I got one now. I'm good."
Allgaier had a far more stressful night in the No. 40 JR Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro. He spent the entire race battling JJ Yeley for one of the final spots in the Daytona 500 lineup.
Allgaier was ahead of Yeley for most of the race, but he lost track position as the laps counted down. It appeared that JR Motorsports would ultimately fall short of the big goal, but Allgaier used the outside lane to gain back the needed track position and cross the line ahead of Yeley.
JR Motorsports qualified for the Daytona 500 while NY Racing Team headed home disappointed.
Chandler Smith, another open driver, had an early exit from the race. He spun into the outside wall on Lap 13 and crumpled the front of the Garage 66 Ford Mustang. He was running third at the time of the crash.
The crash began when Smith moved down to the bottom lane. He was not clear of Justin Haley, so he made contact with the No. 7 Chevrolet and then hit the wall. Multiple other cars were collected by the incident.
Smith rebounded into Ty Gibbs, who slammed into Haley and spun him into the outside wall. Helio Castroneves hit Gibbs from behind and Michael McDowell from the side. JJ Yeley's car sustained damage further back in the field.
Smith was one of the drivers in an open entry. He had to beat out three other drivers in Duel No. 1 to make the Daytona 500. The crash ended his pursuit of a spot in the starting lineup.
Castroneves also failed to continue in the race, but he will still make the Daytona 500 through the Open Exemption Provisional. He will be the 41st car in the field on Sunday afternoon.