The Daytona 500 is the Super Bowl of races for NASCAR and next season when the engines start revving up at Daytona International Speedway for qualifying, the Duels will be televised in primetime at night for the first time.
According to ESPN.com, the Duels will be moving to primetime for the 2014 season and will be held on Feb. 20. Speedway president Joie Chitwood announced the news on Thursday, releasing a statement saying: "Moving the Budweiser Duel under the lights will add another dimension to Budweiser Speedweeks."
The races are usually held on Thursday afternoon before the big race, btu next year the 150-mile qualifiers will be going on at night under the lights of Daytona. The Duels will join a number of NASCAR primetime races, including the Sprint Unlimited and the NextEra Energy Resources 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, making three primetime races during Speedweeks.
This year's Daytona got off to a historic start as Danica Patrick became the first womn to win the pole at the event. It also marked the first time in the history of the sport that a woman took the pole in a Sprint Cup race.
The pole win puts Patrick in a prime position heading into Daytona and it took some of the focus off of her relationship with Ricky Stenhouse Jr., which was all reporters were asking about during media week leading up to the race. Patrick is participating in the Duels on Thursday and also will be racing in the Nationwide opener on Saturday.
Patrick will be driving aggressively in the Duels, but if she wrecks her car at all she will lose her top spot and be forced to start off in the back of the pack. At one point she was running 18th in the Duel and has not wrecked her car with about 10 laps to go.
