SHANE van Gisbergen has twice dodged carnage to finish sixth in the opening Duel, which set the inside row for Monday morning’s Daytona 500.

Provisionally, SVG will line up for the main race from 13th, a marked improvement over his 26th starting position from his debut in the event last year.

“We obviously didn’t qualify as well as we would have liked,” said van Gisbergen.

“We missed it a little bit, but once the race started, our #97 SuperFile Chevy was really nice.

“We were just patient at the start, saving fuel and riding in the back, being safe.

“Once we were ready to go, I could creep up the pack quite nicely.

“It was really fun to be competitive and put ourselves in a good spot.

“We got close to a couple of wrecks, but missed them.

“We had a good pit stop, and it worked out really well.

“It’s a good starting spot for Sunday.”

After qualifying 37th, SVG started from 19th in the first 150-mile-long Duel directly behind Trackhouse Racing teammate Ross Chastain, although he dropped to the tail of the field from the green flag.

By lap 11, the Kiwi clawed his way back into 19th, before advancing to 15th on lap 24 of 60.

As the two side-by-side lanes chopped and changed, van Gisbergen tucked in behind Chastain to be placed 12th with 20 laps remaining.

As the field started to pit with 15 laps remaining, Casey Mears lost control and took out Noah Gragson, with the stranded cars bringing out the caution.

Not having already stopped, van Gisbergen’s #97 Chevrolet was placed eighth, although following his service, he was flushed back to 15th for the restart with 11 laps to go.

SVG moved into 12th, as a massive battle developed between Chandler Smith and Corey LaJoie for the transfer place to earn a place in the main race.

The cork flew out of the bottle with four laps remaining, with multiple cars leading, including race leader Bubba Wallace, William Byron, Chris Buescher and Smith, with van Gisbergen skillfully dodging the carnage.

From eighth at the green-white-chequered flag restart, multiple cars, including LaJoie, wrecked entering turn three on the last lap, with SVG once again missing the damage as he took to the apron.

The race was won by Joey Logano, with Mears claiming an unlikely transfer after ploughing through the wreck.

The second Duel proved to be much cleaner, running green throughout, with the win going to Chase Elliot, while Anthony Alfredo advanced to race day.

From here, the next two days will each feature 50 minutes of practice, ahead of the 200-lap main event, which is scheduled to start at 5:30am AEDT Monday, although the forecast chance of light rain has the potential to interrupt proceedings.

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