RELATED: Can-Am Duel 1 results | Can-Am Duel 2 results
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- A move by Jamie McMurray and a sudden lack of real estate for Jimmie Johnson will send Matt Kenseth from the front row to the back of the field when Sunday's 58th running of the Daytona 500 gets underway Sunday at Daytona International Speedway.
Kenseth (Joe Gibbs Racing) locked in the No. 2 qualifying spot in Coors Light Pole qualifying last Sunday. But a crash at the end of the second Can-Am Duel qualifying race on Thursday sent him, along with Johnson, Martin Truex Jr. and AJ Allmendinger, to the infield care center.
None were injured. All were disappointed.
Kenseth's team will be one of those rolling out a backup entry for Sunday's race, a move that means he'll have to drop to the rear for the car swap.
"I don't know if starting in the back is as big of a deal as losing your car; that's the second one we've lost this week," said Kenseth, who also lost a car in Saturday night's Sprint Unlimited non-points race at DIS. "I think we're probably down to our third-string car. This car was obviously really, really fast.
"I don't know what they have in the trailer for the next car. That's the worst part. Starting in the back … if you can't get to the front in three and a half or four hours, you have an issue."
With Kyle Busch leading and the leaders headed into Turn 1 for the final time, McMurray moved low, then shot high in an attempt to take the lead. But by then, Johnson was already moving up on the outside.
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"He never touched my quarter," McMurray said of the incident with Johnson. "I don't know if it was a disturbance in the air. … I really don't know. It's hard to tell looking at the replay what happened.
"I didn't want anyone on the outside because if you got stuck on inside it was bad all around. I was trying to fake out the 18 to get to his outside. My car stalled out and I didn't have anything. It was hard to break the plane of the car in front you especially running single file like we did tonight."
Johnson (Hendrick Motorsports) said McMurray "tried to put a move on the 18 and left the bottom in a hurry to come up and block my run. I was just out there.
"I could see with his aggression how fast he was coming up that our line was going to take me into the wall. I tried to check up and get out of there and it just didn't work out and it took me up into the outside wall a little bit, turned me down across the field. Just a block that didn't turn out, I was out there and unfortunately it just turned us around."
Johnson, twice a winner of the Daytona 500, will be breaking in a backup entry as well when practice gets underway Friday. It shouldn't be an issue, the six-time series champion said.
"The guys were real confident about our backup selection so I feel good about it," he said. "I was asking what our strategy was here, if we needed to protect. Chad (Knaus, crew chief) of course wanted me to but he said, 'Go race, we've got a great one sitting in the truck' so we'll take advantage of the next couple of practice sessions to dial this one in."
Busch took the checkered flag as the race ended under caution, with McMurray (Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates) and Kurt Busch (Stewart-Haas Racing) second and third respectively.
Johnson, credited with a 13th-place finish, placed no blame on McMurray for the incident.
"Man, we're racing," he said. "It's hard to put a lot of blame on somebody when you're making split-second decisions."
Kurt Busch and Danica Patrick were also involved in the late crash, but neither will be going to a backup car for Sunday's season-opening race.