NASCAR Duels 2017 Results, Winner, Highlights and Twitter Reaction

Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin won their respective races at the Can-Am Duels at the Daytona International Speedway on Thursday night.

Elliott had already secured the pole position for the Daytona 500 in qualifying, but he still came to win in the 60-lap race, earning 10 points on the season standings in the process.

He and Dale Earnhardt Jr. will stay in the front row Sunday, but Jamie McMurray earned his position on the second row in Sunday's race after earning second place in the first race.

Hamlin will also start in the second row after his impressive win in the second of two duels. He overcame an early penalty and passed Earnhardt late to earn the checkered flag.

Here are the full results from the two duels:

Pos.	Driver	Car	Time Back (Seconds)	Points
1	Chase Elliott	24	-	10
2	Jamie McMurray	1	0.156	9
3	Kevin Harvick	4	0.168	8
4	Brad Keselowski	2	0.255	7
5	Matt Kenseth	20	0.278	6
6	Trevor Bayne	6	0.347	5
7	Martin Truex Jr.	78	0.408	4
8	Aric Almirola	43	0.459	3
9	Joey Logano	22	0.466	2
10	Cole Whitt	72	0.485	1

Pos.	Driver	Car	Time Back (Seconds)	Points
1	Denny Hamlin	11	-	10
2	Clint Bowyer	14	0.214	9
3	Kurt Busch	41	0.223	8
4	A.J. Allmendinger	47	0.340	7
5	Austin Dillon	3	0.340	6
6	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	88	0.430	5
7	Danica Patrick	10	0.435	4
8	Ryan Newman	31	0.517	3
9	Kyle Larson	42	0.552	2
10	Ty Dillon	13	0.591	1

Duel 1 Recap

Sean Gardner/Getty Images

Elliott started off in front of a field of 21 drivers, although he fell to the middle of the pack in a hurry. Without much to gain from the race, many likely assumed he would simply coast to the finish without putting any damage on his car.

It turns out he was simply waiting for his perfect opportunity to charge late.

Brad Keselowski took over control early with several drivers being aggressive within the first few laps to get in ideal position.

While he remained in front for most of the first half of the race, it was Kyle Busch who pulled in front as the field went in for a competition caution after the 25th lap. Busch also won the race off pit road, although he was one of the few who didn't add any tires at his stop.

There was some drama when a little contact seemed likely to derail some of the cars, but quality driving saved it.

Here is some reaction following the near-drama:

Elliott worked his way to the front, and a few laps later Reed Sorenson spun out. He went into an infield wall, taking him out of competition for the duel and the Daytona 500. Fox Sports captured the accident:

Nick Bromberg of Yahoo Sports had this interesting note about the crash:

The restart came with eight laps to go, with Elliott pulling back out in front. Although he received plenty of pressure from McMurray, Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth, they couldn't get past the No. 24 car for the last few laps.

With the win, Elliott gave himself plenty of momentum going into Sunday.

Duel 2 Recap

Sean Gardner/Getty Images

Earnhardt began in the front of the race, but unlike Elliott, he wasn't ready to give that up so quickly.

Tom Jensen of Fox Sports described the race for first at the start:

Earnhardt eventually took control and led through the 25th lap at the caution. Hamlin fell out of the top 10 and was then penalized for driving through too many pit boxes, being forced to the back of the line.

Ryan Blaney briefly took over first, but Earnhardt quickly returned to the lead.

Unfortunately, Blaney's night was ruined after this contact from Jimmie Johnson:

Johnson's car also saw some damage, but his crew was able to patch things up and get him back onto the track.

This brought out another caution, but Earnhardt still remained in front with less than 10 laps left in the race. Behind him, Hamlin crept back up all the way to second place.

With just two laps to go, however, Hamlin used a boost from Austin Dillon to make the pass and move into first.

FS1 captured the game-changing moment:

Although he was forced to the back early in the race, Hamlin ended up in front when it mattered and easily held on in the final lap to earn his third duel victory.

Post-Race Reaction

One of the biggest stories in the first duel was the crash between Corey LaJoie and Sorenson, which helped the former qualify for the Daytona 500.

"I guess he felt like he did what he had to do to make the race," Sorenson said, per Jenna Fryer of the Associated Press. "I hope he's proud of that part of it. 

While LaJoie maintained the bump was not on purpose, he didn't seem regretful after the race.

"If that was my mom, I would probably spin her out to make the Daytona 500, too," he said. "That's just frank. I'm sure I'm not going to be on Reed's Christmas card list this year, but that's all right."

The second duel saw a dominant performance by Earnhardt for much of the day before a late pass by Hamlin.

"I don't know what I could have done differently to defend that," he said after the race. "Ain't much you can do about it. It's not really defendable. Good job by Denny."

He will simply hope to be in a better position in the real race Sunday.