The primary purpose of Thursday night's Duel at Daytona is to set the full starting lineup for the NASCAR Cup Series season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway after the front row was set in Wednesday night's single-car qualifying session.
But that doesn't mean there isn't additional incentive to run hard in these two 60-lap races around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked Daytona Beach, Florida oval.
Though these races are technically qualifying races, points are still paid out to the top 10 finishers in each. So after the first Duel race, the Cup Series technically has a new points leader.
23XI Racing's Bubba Wallace earned his first career Duel win and scored 10 points. As a result, he is technically the Cup Series points leader for the first time in his career, leading by a single point over second place finisher William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports.
Whoever wins the second Duel is set to tie Wallace atop the standings head into Sunday's 200-lap "Great American Race".
As the NASCAR on Fox team pointed out during the Fox Sports 1 broadcast of the Duel at Daytona, these points can be crucial.
Last year's regular season championship was won by 23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick, and he won it by only a single point over Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson.
Yes, Larson missed a race, and had the two been tied, Larson would have owned the tiebreaker. Still, that difference technically came down to the Duel races. Reddick scored 10 points with a victory in his race, while Larson was only able to collect two points with a ninth place finish.
That is a massive difference, as Reddick collected 15 extra playoff points for winning the regular season championship, while Larson collected 10, marking a 10-point swing between the top two drivers when the points resets occurred ahead of each round of the playoffs.
Fox is set to provide live coverage of the 67th annual Daytona 500 from Daytona International Speedway beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET this Sunday, February 16. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the action!