DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The front row is set for the 66th running of the Great American Race.
Joey Logano and Michael McDowell will start first and second for the Daytona 500 on Sunday. Their times gave Ford a sweep of the top two spots, ending an 11-year pole streak for Chevrolet, which included a three-year streak for Hendrick Motorsports.
Qualifying was held on Wednesday to determine the top two starters for Sunday's race and set the field for the Bluegreen Vacation Duel races on Thursday, which will set the remaining spots for the Daytona 500.
NASCAR's charter system ensures 36 drivers will automatically qualify for the race with remaining entries, known as open cars, to fill the 40 starting spots. Six open teams arrived at Daytona, meaning two drivers will miss Sunday's race after the Thursday duels.
Logano was the last driver to hit the track during round two of qualifying. McDowell held the top spot for most of round two and missed out on his first career pole by seven-hundredths of a second.
Logano's pole-winning lap time was 49.465 seconds around the 2.5-mile track.
"The guys have done such an amazing job working on this car," Logano said to the Fox Sports crew after qualifying. "I'm really proud of them."
Two open teams qualified for the Daytona 500 on speed. Anthony Alfredo for Beard Motorsports and David Ragan for RFK Racing beat out the other four open teams to lock in a spot. Alfredo and Ragan qualified 20th and 27th, respectively.
The remaining two spots will go to the highest-finishing open cars in Thursday's duels. NASCAR Hall of Famer Jimmie Johnson failed to make it in on speed and will need to rely on a good performance Thursday. The remaining open drivers are BJ McLeod, JJ Yeley, and Kaz Grala, the latter of whom was not able to qualify due to a mechanical issue.
Thursday's duel races begin on Thursday at 7 p.m. Drivers that qualified with an odd-numbered position make up the field for the first duel and will determine the inside row for the Daytona 500. Meanwhile, drivers who qualified in even-numbered positions will be in the second duel and determine the outside row for Sunday's race.
The full qualifying results are here.