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Chase Elliott celebrates his win at the Can-Am Duels at Daytona Speedway

The first of the two qualifying races was a relatively easy one. Elliott led for the final 24 laps of the 60-lap race.

"I know it's just a Duel win and you obviously wish it was Sunday so it counts for the playoffs. But it still means a lot to me, means a lot to our team,” Elliott said after the race.

Elliott won the pole position for the Daytona 500 in qualifying. He will start the race on the front row after winning the first qualifying race.

“Oh, I think the biggest thing is, as everybody knows, it's not so much about where you start and more about where you finish,” Elliott said. “Daytona 500 pole day, as it should be, is more about the teams and what they bring over the off-season from the chassis shop to the 24 shop in particular, the body shop, our Hendrick department, Chevrolet. I think that's what Daytona 500 qualifying has always been about. I think that's where the attention should be, where it should be centered.”

Elliott led twice for 25 laps, the majority of them toward the end of the race. Brad Keselowski led for a race-high 28 laps, before a scheduled caution during the race. After the break in the race, Elliott took the lead. Keselowski came in fourth place and led three times.

Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski race at the Can-Am Duels at Daytona Speedway

“Tonight's result hasn't changed my opinion on that. I'm looking forward to it obviously. You love to get that qualifying spot on Sunday, but we really earned it tonight, to start on the front row, which is even better,” Elliott said regarding his pole win and starting position for the Daytona 500.

Jamie McMurray came in second place, moving into the runner-up position coming after a caution with eight laps to go in the race.

“I thought Chase did an awesome job. It doesn't matter who it is, at some point we all make a bad decision out there,” McMurray said on the driving of Elliott late in the race.

Kevin Harvick came in third place and did not lead during the race. The entirety of the race went smoothly, and ended up being an exciting one. Rainy weather has played a major role in the practicing and preparation of the racers at Daytona so far this season.

Corey Lajoie spun out Reed Sorenson to secure a spot in the Daytona 500. The crash eliminated Sorenson, who finished in last place. Sorenson did not qualify for the Daytona 500 due to results from the second Can-Am Duel race.

Denny Hamlin celebrates his win at the Can-Am Duels at Daytona

“Yeah, it was definitely a tough race for us. The reason it was so tough for us, a lot of guys were content to run in single file for most of the race,” Hamlin said. “We obviously were trying to buck that trend for most of the race by going to the bottom. We'd get hung out. I was just trying to make it interesting for the most part because I knew I wasn't going to get back up in line.”

Hamlin led twice for four laps of the 60-lap race. He got a huge boost in the second to last lap as he moved past race leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hamlin was asked after the race if he has any regrets about passing Earnhardt Jr. and winning the race.

Denny Hamlin reaches the checkered flag and wins the second Can-Am Duels at Daytona

Earnhardt Jr. led three times for a total of 53 laps before losing his lead and the win. The win would have been important for him because he has not raced for seven months. He finished in sixth place and will start on the front row for the upcoming Daytona 500 on Sunday.

Dale Earnhardt Jr races past the green flag before losing his lead.

Clint Bowyer came in second place and did not lead during the race.

“That was my first crack at-bat,” Bowyer said. “We didn't have drafting practice or the Clash or anything. So there were some gremlins in there that I want to work on that will help me smooth in and be a little bit better in the 500, be a little bit more comfortable.”

Kurt Busch finished in third place. The second of the two races went smoothly. There were two caution periods, one a scheduled competition caution, for eight laps. Jimmie Johnson crashed into the turn 3 wall on lap 48.

The Coffman Racing S13 240SX at March Air Reserve Base Museum for the K&N calendar shoot

If you want to make power, not only do you need a race proven K&N filter, you also need an engine that can punch it out. You certainly can’t beat pure cubic inches, which is why Coffman Racing relies on the Rodgers Racing Engines built four-hundred-ten cubic inch V8 that’s based on the Roush-Yates RY410. It started off life as a NASCAR-based FR9 until Rodgers Racing Engines got ahold of it. From its base, it was built up into the 988 horsepower monster you now see before you. It also means that no ordinary transmission could be used as the torque coming off the crankshaft from the Quarter Master NASCAR Cup clutch. An Andrews A431 four-speed transmission with CNC cut gears means Matt will probably never have to worry about broken transmissions again.

Formula Drift driver and K&N-sponsored Matt Coffman's S13 240SX is built for war

This car is a team effort, though, as the guys behind Matt keep the car running and going through each of the eight rounds in the Formula Drift season. It’s guys like Bill Conway, George Kiriakopolis, Blaine Cory, and Jantzen Knips that help him pull off the amazing rounds and runs. Matt's car is also featured in this year's K&N calendar. So be sure to grab a copy so you don't miss this or any of the other insanely cool rides packed inside.

With a Roush-Yates FR9 derived V8, Rodgers Racing Engines massaged 988-hp out of it

If you're seeing this, you're in Coffman's Falken Tire smoke

Greg Ventura won the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Super Street championship.

Ventura beat John Bycroft in the final round at Las Vegas. He did the math and added up the points himself. He calculated that he had enough points to win the championship. But he had to wait a day to hear the official results from the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series.

“It probably took me a day for it to sink in,” said Ventura, a Maintenance Analyst with K&N Engineering. “It took about a day and a half, but after that it was official. That was a Sunday night that I won the race. On Monday afternoon, I got the call saying I was the champion. That was, it was relief, it was kind of an emotional thing.”

The season finale in Las Vegas became a two-event race. The spring races in Las Vegas were rained out. As a result, the spring race was made up during the weekend in addition to the scheduled fall races.

Ventura entered the races in Las Vegas in second place in the Super Street standings. He fell to third place after the spring make-up event. He had to pass two drivers instead of one to win the championship.

“That’s exactly what happened,” Ventura said. “After the first round, I really didn’t think to myself I am going to win this championship. I’m just going to keep going until that little win light doesn’t show up on the guard rail past the finish line. I just kept knocking the rounds down. When I got to the semis, even the final round, here’s my chance. Here’s your chance to put this whole season away.”

It was his first NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Super Street championship. He brought two cars to the season finale in Las Vegas. It turned out to be a perfect combination. His Super Gas entry provided a distraction from the Super Street championship, just enough to let him relax when he raced the Super Street car.

“The car was impeccable. It was awesome,” Ventura said. “To take my focus off, I had my other car I was running at that same event. I have two Novas that I race. I had them both there to kind of distract me. If you’re hyper-focused on the points and what everybody else is doing, you really don’t do well. I almost won the class in the event as well. I was literally running around like a chicken with my head cut off.”

Ventura won two races in his championship season in Super Street. He won his first race at Fontana. But he missed the first Super Street event of the season in Arizona.

Greg Ventura won two NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Super Street events in 2016.

His Super Street car, a Chevy Nova, was his first race car. He and his father first started racing it in 1991 when Ventura was still in high school. It needed some upgrades, shocks and suspension mainly. When it was ready to race, he entered it in Fontana.

“He passed away in 2012,” Ventura said about his father. “I never won this championship when he was alive.”

After winning in Fontana, he was third in the Super Street standings. Ventura decided to run for the Super Street championship after Fontana. But he needed to make up points that he missed by skipping the event in Arizona. He went to the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event in Oregon. He advanced to the third round and earned enough points to put him in contention for the championship.

“I earned some valuable points there,” Ventura said. “I had to go up there to make up for the race that I missed at the beginning of the year. That helped me propel myself into the championship chase.”

After the Oregon event, he experienced a win drought. He was competitive, but he didn’t win another race until the season finale in Las Vegas, an event he needed to win to take home the championship.

Ventura starts his campaign to repeat as Super Street champion in Phoenix in March. He went to the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series season opener in Pomona earlier this month. He reached the third round in Super Gas. But his focus will be in Super Street.

“I’m not going to chase the points in Super Gas this year,” Ventura said. “I’m going to do the same thing I did last year in Super Street. That first race will be in a couple weeks in Phoenix.”

In addition to racing for the Super Street championship, Ventura wants to qualify for the Jeg’s All Star event in Chicago in July. The top drivers in each of the seven Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series division are invited to the Jeg’s All Stars. It is also a team event, pitting drivers from the same division against other drivers from other regions.

“It’s the best guy in every division,” Ventura said. “The best guy in each division meets in Chicago in July and we’ll race it out.”

Greg Ventura won the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Super Street season finale at Las Vegas

“It’s second to none,” Ventura said. “There’s two people in the world. There are people who do have K&N on their cars and then there’s people that should. In every arena that they have a product in, it’s on my car. I have everything that I can possibly have that the company makes on my racing cars.”

Ventura said he wants to thank K&N, Lucas Oil Products, Taylor Freezers, Carrol Shelby Goodyear and Race Trans for helping him win the Street Stock championship.

Katie Vernola's long-wheelbase RZR is ready to take on the Mint 400

A key element of that learning curve is finding the perfect balance between hard-charging speed and keeping the equipment together. When we asked Vernola about her biggest take-away from the Parker 250, she made that point very clearly.

Vernola's handled the Arizona desert well until she lost a tire

Reigning in the competitive impulse to pin the throttle and charge full-bore goes against Vernola’s aggressive nature. However, she is clearly taking the lesson of her Parker 250 DNF to heart, and adjusting her mindset for the next desert race.

No one has ever made a K&N race suit look better

“My goals for 2017 are to get on as many podiums as I can, and chase the championship title in WORCS and Best of the Desert,” Vernola said.

Vernola knows that K&N will be behind her in her WORCS and BITD racing efforts.

“I started my relationship with K&N four years ago racing a 2012 Polaris RZR 900, and every year has gotten better and better. K&N doesn't just sponsor my three Polaris RZRs with top-of-the-line filters, I also run their filters in my Lexus, chase truck, and RV,” Vernola said.

Vernola trusts K&N filter to keep her engine protected

K&N will be following Katie Vernola’s championship chase in both the BITD and WORCS series. Check back to this news site for full coverage.