"[We were a] little smarter from what I did last year, a lot of lessons learned. A total team effort. I said it out there on the start-finish line, it takes a total team effort to win out here on a superspeedway. You’ve got to execute the strategy correctly. You’ve got to execute everything on the racetrack. Coleman [Pressley] did an amazing job up there painting the picture of what was going on behind me, getting ready for the intense moment that was gonna happen on the last lap. You know it was gonna happen. It’s just staying calm and making the right blocks at the right time and not making the right blocks at the right time, and positioned ourselves to where I was gonna be in the front there at the end. Blaney helped me a lot there at the end, sticking with his Ford friend, instead of pushing that Toyota, so it worked out really well." - Joey Logano, race winner, Duel No. 1

"It was a track position race all day and I certainly didn’t want to lose the track position. I wanted to get back to the lead. I wanted to control the finish. I didn’t want to wait on other people behind me to help me make the moves I needed to make. I wanted to make the move and I was able to get a run. The 5 gave me a really good push. The 38 got out a little bit too far and I got a good run on him and was able to pull off a good move. It has to happen with a fast race car. Doug Yates builds incredible engines and gives us the horsepower. We have all the resources at Stewart-Haas Racing, all the people back at the shop do a great job. It feels good." - Aric Almirola, race winner, Duel No. 2

"We definitely had some speed in our Discount Tire Ford. I think the theme for the whole night is Fast Fords. Hopefully, that transfers over to Sunday. I’m proud of that effort for everyone inside the Ford Pro group and Roush Yates, everybody. That’s a big testament to the work done in the offseason. We didn’t have that speed last year. It was fun to run up front all race and have a little bit of speed and make some decisions – some good and some not so good. Overall, I’m proud of the evening. There’s some good stuff to look at for Sunday’s race." - Austin Cindric, finished second in Duel No. 2

"I had a pretty good run going; Austin (Hill) blocked that and then that kind of stalled the top. Then from there, we got really lucky because whoever got loose made a great save up there because I thought we were all wrecked. It was good to get back to third there and get a good start for Sunday. We will try and make our No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevy drive a little better; keep the same pace and I think we will be alright." - Chase Elliott, finished third in Duel No. 2

"It was too calm to learn as much as we wanted, but the car is in one piece so we get to race this Fastenal Mustang that we unloaded first. I’m proud of everybody. That was really good single-car speed yesterday and ran really well in the draft tonight. We just didn’t get near as dicey as I was hoping and being able to move around or really chase some stuff. I wanted to learn more. I would have really loved to be in the same Duel as the boss man and be able to work with him, but it was still solid for us. It puts us in a good place to start the 500 and definitely have a little bit to work on with this thing, but we had a fast race car." - Chris Buescher, finished fourth in Duel No. 1

"I thought we were gonna commit off of turn 2 and then he shot below me and that kind of hung me out there all by myself. From that point I was just treading water, but our Busch LIght Ford Mustang seemed to do all the things that I needed to do. The handling is fine. The Toyotas were able to do a couple things speed-wise that I really couldn’t do. I was more defensive than I was offensive, so I was kind of stuck with what I had there and then I got out by myself and I was really stuck. They did a good job. You never know how those races are gonna shake out at the end, but it was a good start." - Kevin Harvick, finished sixth in Duel No. 1

"It was really disappointing. I thought we had a good shot at it there. I thought we positioned ourselves pretty good… I was just really loose. When I was at the top, I was sideways the whole time. I didn’t think I needed to be up there but there was no way to get out. I mean, we almost had it there. I kind of got pushed at the bottom there… the No. 5 was pushing me hard, which you have to do. That’s racing." - Todd Gilliland, finished seventh in Duel No. 2

"It’s such a weird feeling… this event is just so big. I wanted to walk out Sunday afternoon knowing I was going to start in the Daytona 500, and we accomplished that. That’s a huge shoutout to everyone. We all work together so well. Without my Ford teammates, I wouldn’t be here right now. I’m just so proud of everyone, and I’m excited for Sunday. The car has been great. We saw how fast all of us are together, and the big thing is on these superspeedways, how well we work together. That’s what I was mostly impressed by. I’m excited for what I can help out with on Sunday. I definitely want to help out my FRM teammates like Michael [McDowell] helped me out today. We’ll grind hard on Sunday." - Zane Smith, finished eighth in Duel No. 1

"It was unfortunate. You never want that to happen. I felt like a few laps before that, they told me on the radio that we needed to start making time. [Kyle Larson] was being more aggressive to me, pushing me. I thought [Kyle Busch] was actually dragging his brakes because I could push him so easily. I guess he wasn’t, but I was getting so much energy from [Larson] that I was just pushing too hard. I felt like [Larson] was pushing pretty hard to me, and I was just pushing [Busch] too hard. When they gave me the message to take it easy on the corners, I was going to do that. But I spun him out on the straightaway, so I was not expecting that." - Daniel Suarez, finished 12th in Duel No. 2

"Well, we were inherently unlucky for the last 36 hours, but we got lucky. I wish I could have said that I drove it in on pure pace, but it was just crazy.

"When we went out there, the car was bouncing around. I had no idea what was going on. I thought the drivetrain was broken, and Tony just made it better every time. We got lucky with the yellows to try to get some experience, but it is pretty crazy.

"This race, I've watched it for so many years and so much crazy stuff can happen, and thankfully we were on the right side of the craziness. It's pretty amazing." - Conor Daly, finished 17th in Duel No. 2

"I was on the top and saw someone about lost it, can’t remember who, but I knew it was getting dicey. Going down the backstretch I actually rolled out of the throttle a little bit, but I had guys behind me and it wasn’t like I could jump out of the throttle. I saw the wreck started happening and dirt started coming across the race track.  When the dirt was going across the track I kind of lost sight of where the cars were that were wrecked and the next thing I knew was I was trying to get on the brakes pretty hard and I don’t know if I got in the dirt and it got me loose or [Riley Herbst] tagged me, I have no idea. Either way I started going toward the outside wall and I got a lot of damage. I think the right front blower was broke and there was no way to fix it and it just ended our night.  It’s a bummer because we knew where [Conor Daly] was and we knew that he was multiple laps down and all we had to do was beat him. When we were single file, we were like, ‘hey, we are just going to run here’. We were going to try and get some experience and learn the draft and see what the Cup cars do differently from the Xfinity cars. As soon as they got two wide through the tri-oval, I should have just bailed completely and lost the draft and not worried about it. I didn’t react fast enough and then the wreck started and we ended up in it. There is no reason why we shouldn’t be in the 500 from where [Daly] was running and really it was just being dumb on my part and there is just no reason for that. I was the one holding the steering wheel and I should have just seen what was happening and just let those guys do their thing and we just fall back. Even if we fall laps down, it doesn’t matter as long as we stay in front of [Daly]. It stings, but we get to race on Saturday in the Xfinity car and I am really excited about that with RCR and hope we can go win that race." - Austin Hill, finished 18th in Duel No. 2 (Crashed out)

"Just a lot of pushing and shoving for a few laps straight. Doing everything you can to try and hang on, and do the best you can to make sure that you keep it straight. Just finally overloaded the left-rear and hooked it to the right.

"Hate it for all my guys. They built a fast No. 8 3CHI Chevy Camaro. It was really fun to drive. It drove great the whole time. Everything was super easy, super simple. But we have a long ways to go. I don’t understand, but it is what it is." - Kyle Busch, finished 19th in Duel No. 2 (Crashed out)

Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.  Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.