Cassill survives Can-Am Duel qualifying race

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Cedar Rapids native Landon Cassill had a vision in his mind of how his Can-Am Duel 150-mile qualifying race was going to go.

The 26-year-old had every intention of being as aggressive as he's ever been in an effort to set himself up with the best starting position possible for Sunday's Daytona 500. Unfortunately for him, aggression wasn't really ever an option in a race that saw all but the first two laps run single-file. He fell to the back and could never make up the ground.

Ultimately he ended up finishing 11th in a race won by Kyle Busch, but only because half the cars in the top 10 wrecked on the final lap. Lesson learned, Cassill said.

'I'm a little frustrated with myself because I wanted to race the Duel harder than I did, but the way the first two laps played out for me, I just wasn't able to make an aggressive move that I was comfortable with, and it wasn't worth risking the car,' Cassill said after the race. 'As it turned out, five laps into the race we just weren't in the position I wanted to be. It turned out OK. They all wrecked each other at the end and I'm glad I wasn't in it, but it sure would have been nice to race a little harder. That's what Sunday is for.'

Cassill started 17th in his No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford, and with the high lane being the fastest throughout the course of the two Duel races, it was a fight initially to get up there.

With this just being a qualifying race and plenty more time to push the issue on Sunday, Cassill didn't force his way up top, and as a result paid the price by running in the back for most of the race. He thought those ahead of him would mix it up a little more, but that never happened.

'I needed to force the issue a little bit more to get to the outside and to the line that was moving,' Cassil said. 'I really felt like they would've raced a little harder side by side, which would've helped what I was trying to do. Just nobody had any interest in racing side by side. They all wanted to run to the top, and I was the last guy to run to the top.

'It's kind of a product of this particular race. There's no major rush because it's the Duels, and being at night, there's a lot of grip on the racetrack, so it's really fast. You're going to run up to the top and carry as much momentum as you can.'

Practice on Wednesday was the first time Cassill piloted his new ride, and Thursday night was the first race action he got with crew chief Donnie Wingo — who won the Daytona 500 as a crew chief with Trevor Bayne in 2011 — and spotter Tony Raines, a former Cup driver himself.

Like any new marriage of driver and crew, there were a few kinks Thursday night, but nothing too terrible. Cassill said they'll get things worked out and focus on getting the car right in practice on Friday and Saturday, which will be in conditions much closer to that of the Daytona 500 on Sunday, in which he'll start 24th.

'There's a couple things we worked on — a couple things in practice we'll probably go back on. But not a ton,' Cassill said. 'We'll work on some things with the steering wheel I felt, that I want to change — some feel stuff. We'll focus on how it drives during the day time.

'I like Donnie, it was fun working with him. Tony Raines is my spotter, and it's my first time working with him, so we've got plenty of things we need to kind of figure out together on how we communicate. But we'll get there. It just takes time.'

Defending Cup champ Kyle Busch beat Jamie McMurray for the Duel win. Kurt Busch was third, Carl Edwards fourth and Ty Dillon fifth.

Matt Kenseth, who qualified second in time trials last Sunday, was involved in the last lap wreck that included Jimmie Johnson, Martin Truex Jr. and Danica Patrick. He will have to forfeit his front-row starting position by going to a backup car.

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