DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.: Noah Gragson and Jacques Villeneuve will compete in their first Daytona 500 on Sunday after both drivers maneuvered the two fastest laps of the non-chartered cars in qualifying Wednesday night at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway ahead of the “Great American Race.”
Gragson was the fastest of the two drivers maneuvering a lap of 50.689 seconds at 177.553 miles per hour. Villeneuve was a little more than three-tenths of a second slower than Gragson at 51.010 seconds or 176.436 miles per hour.
Gragson who failed to qualify for last year’s Daytona 500 receives redemption for his Beard Motorsports team after the Las Vegas, Nev. native was involved in a crash in last year’s qualifying race keeping his Michigan-based team on the sidelines for the Super Bowl event of the NASCAR Cup Series.
The Daytona 500 will be Gragson’s Cup Series debut.
The 23-year-old phenom will also compete in Saturday night’s Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner 300 at Daytona in the NASCAR Xfinity Series season-opener for JR Motorsports.
Villeneuve will make his first Cup Series start since the 2013 race at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway driving for the newly founded Team Hezeberg powered by Reaume Brothers Racing in the No. 27 Ford Mustang.
He failed to previously qualify for his other previous attempt at the Daytona 500 in 2008 for the now-defunct Bill Davis Racing.
After his qualifying run, Villeneuve said he was surprised by his lap time as he didn’t think had enough speed to secure one of four spots available for the non-chartered Cup Series teams.
“I was convinced we didn’t have the speed to get in on time, and I thought we would then have to fight it through the Duels,” said Villeneuve. “Somehow today the car was a lot easier to drive. It was easy to be smooth because we got in by not a lot.
“It was very, very close. It was all a matter of getting right up to speed coming out of turn two, going through the gears, getting away from the wall to not block the air, just getting these extra few revs and that made the difference.”
As much as making the show for Sunday’s race was huge for his rookie Team Hezeberg powered by Reaume Brothers Racing, it was also gratifying to the driver himself.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “It’s satisfying and amazing because there’s quite a few times where I’ve been hearing, ‘OK, come on. You’ve passed it. Just give it up,’ and, no, the hunger has never stopped and experience is only a big help until the day where I guess you start getting your foot off the throttle because you get a little bit scared or you don’t get that adrenaline rush anymore as a positive thing but start getting it as a negative that’s when you should stop, but until that moment experience is only a benefit.”
Sunday’s race will be Villeneuve’s second superspeedway Cup race and first since 2007 when he made his Cup debut for Bill Davis Racing at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
He qualified an impressive sixth and finished 21st on the lead lap nearly 15 years ago.
His goal for Sunday is simple. Race.
However, before his first laps in the Daytona 500, Villeneuve, and his team plan to take a laid-back, smoother approach to their duel race. Knowing they are locked in and don’t have a backup car or perhaps all of the necessary spare parts, a less-aggressive approach to the qualifying race is likely in store.
“Sunday we’re racing (laughing),” he continued. “We didn’t run much in the pack because our focus was trying to get in on time, and it worked out so that was the right decision to make. Now, will anybody want to race with me or to draft with me in the race?
“That will be a little bit more difficult, but what comes Sunday then there’s nothing to lose anymore. The key is to not destroy the car tomorrow. Tomorrow is a good time to maybe test the drafting, but we don’t have spares and half the teams don’t have spares, so I can’t imagine being as aggressive as it normally is during a Duel.”
Six drivers were vying for two locked-in spots Wednesday evening. Kaz Grala, Greg Biffle, JJ Yeley and Timmy Hill will all rely on Thursday night’s qualifying race to earn a guaranteed starting position for the first Cup Series race of the season.
Two drivers will fail to qualify for the 64th annual Daytona 500.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
