Quick takeaways from the Can-Am Duels

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. –Throughout the 2016 we may have way too many quick thoughts for our post-race posts. So consider our new Takeaways feature to be the home of our random and sometimes intelligent musings. Sometimes the post may have a theme. Sometimes it may just be a mess of unrelated thoughts. Make sure you tweet us your thoughts after the race or email your post-race rants via the link in the signature line below.

• Damn, Dale Earnhardt Jr. That car you named Amelia is still faaaaast. When Junior was shuffled back after spinning the tires during the only restart of Thursday’s first Duel, it was only a matter of when, not if, he would take the lead again. He’s got to be considered the favorite for Sunday’s Daytona 500.

Nice win @DaleJr
Not very often you see a car/driver that much better than the field

— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) February 19, 2016

• His co-favorites are the cars from Joe Gibbs Racing. Denny Hamlin’s been fast all weekend, Kyle Busch was no fluke winner of the second Duel and we’re guessing Matt Kenseth will have a capable backup car. Oh, and Carl Edwards was pretty sporty too.

• The debris problem that plagued the Sprint Unlimited on Saturday night was either quite subdued or eliminated altogether.

• When Busch launched out to such a large lead over the last 1.5 laps after Casey Mears ran out of gas, the prevailing thought (even held by Busch himself) was that he’d get passed by the pack behind him because he had broken the draft. Nope. When Jamie McMurray got to Busch’s bumper he just stopped. Yeah, Busch had to throw a couple blocks on McMurray and they helped blunt McMurray’s momentum. But Busch was plenty fast enough to stay ahead of the field.

• Which leads us to this … is the leader seemingly very hard to pass and get close to because of the rules package at Daytona, or is it because Busch and Earnhardt Jr. have really good cars? Or is it a combination of both?

• Shoutout to BK Racing which brought four cars to Daytona to qualify for the 500 and all four made it. The team was guaranteed two spots with the charter system and the cars of Matt DiBenedetto and Robert Richardson made the field via their qualifying speeds in Sunday’s front row qualifying session.

Podcast: Q&A with EARNHARDT NATION author Jay Busbee: