Alex Bowman on pole for the Daytona 500

And 4! Alex Bowman won the fourth pole of his career at the Daytona 500 on Thursday evening, thanks to his best time during qualifying. The Hendrick Motorsport driver is ahead of his teammate William Byron, who will also start on the front row.

As usual, the rest of the grid was made up of two qualifying races, the Can-Am duels.

Aric Almirola (Stewart-Haas) resisted a big attack from Joey Logano in the last lap to win the first duel. He led 52 of 60 qualifying laps, while Christopher Bell (Joe Gibbs Racing) passed Logano just before the line to finish second, followed by Ryan Newman, Logano and Ryan Preece to round out the top five.

Two-time reigning Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, who is trying to become the first driver in history to win three consecutive editions of the Great American Race, finished 13th. He had to push his Toyota No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing in the pits after the race as he ran out of fuel on the final lap, having taken the white flag in fourth position.

The second duel was dominated by Austin Dillon (Richard Childress Racing), who beat Bubba Wallace to the finish line. Wallace (23

This is the first Daytona qualifying race that Dillon has won and he did it by leading two laps, like in his victory at the Daytona 500 in 2018, over a guy named Wallace.

The latter held on to second place, followed by Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott to round out the top five.

The starting grid: