Joey Logano continues recent plate-race success while Chase Elliott wins second straight Daytona 500 pole.

DAYTONA BEACH — The day began and ended in predictable fashion. A last-lap wreck decided the race, a Hendrick car won the pole.

Joey Logano took advantage of others’ last-lap trouble to win Sunday’s rain-delayed Clash at Daytona. Later in the afternoon, Chase Elliott made it two straight Daytona 500 poles for himself, three straight for Hendrick Motorsports, five straight for Chevrolet.

Elliott’s pole, which came on the day’s final run around the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway, robbed Speedweeks of certain theatrics: His speed of 192.872 mph was less than a blink faster than the 192.864 posted by Dale Earnhardt Jr., who not only remains “The People’s Choice,” but is also now “The Comeback Kid.” The difference between Elliott and Earnhardt on the watch was 2-thousandths of a second.

But hold your applause, folks.

“There ain’t much to it. The car does all the work,” Earnhardt said.

As a matter of local pride, this is the third straight Daytona 500 pole for Elliott’s crew chief, Seabreeze High grad and Ormond Beach native Alan Gustafson.

“This is where my racing career started. Where I came as a kid and fell in love with racing,” Gustafson said. “This is a special place. But our focus is still the Daytona 500.”

The Speedway will be mostly quiet the next few days, with the next Speedweeks action coming Thursday, with afternoon practice sessions and that night’s two 150-mile qualifying races to set the lineup for Sunday’s Daytona 500. Plenty of action preceded the coming quiet, however.

The Clash ended in familiar fashion for those who pay attention to restrictor-plate racing. A late-race move for the lead was interrupted by a poorly timed block from the leader.

The blocking leader, Denny Hamlin, was a little late with his veer to the inside lane in Turn 2, and instead of giving Brad Keselowski a rear bumper, he presented him with his left-rear quarter-panel, a clanking turn of events that sent Hamlin spinning and killed Kez’s momentum.

“I probably didn’t get there in time,” Hamlin said.

No kidding, says the replay.

The beneficiary was Logano, and that too has become a familiar sight at recent plate races. Logano's Clash trophy now goes on the mantel with the Daytona 500 trophy from two years ago and the winner’s hardware from both Talladega races in 2016.

Was Logano lurking behind Hamlin and Keselowski, maybe sensing an issue that would benefit his eventual run to the front? It played out that way, but patience and a hope for opportunity surely wasn’t the game plan.

“I’m not wired that way,” Logano said. “I don’t know how to not go as hard as I can. I’ve got one gear.”

Logano then offered some self-analysis that not only belies his boyish appearance, but indicates his near future at Daytona deserves your attention.

“I think as soon as you get relaxed you get yourself in a bad spot and before you know it, you’re in a crash or whatever,” he said. “I’d rather be the aggressor rather than someone pushing me around. I want to be the person that pushes other people around.”

Sounds like Dale Earnhardt Sr., except Earnhardt never had to say it. It was as obvious as his bumper.

Sunday’s Clash was the 39th running of the annual exhibition. For much of its existence, it’s been a show unto itself. This time, moved to Sunday’s bright sunshine due to Saturday night’s rain clouds, it served somewhat as a primer for the Daytona 500, which will also presumably run in warm sunshine.

But unlike the 500, the Clash rolled out before the smallest crowd for a big-league Daytona race in memory, an estimated 15,000. You can blame the rain-mandated rescheduling. You can blame Dale Earnhardt Jr., who spent the day in the TV booth instead of his racecar. There’s some rationale to both of those, but still, it wasn’t a busy day at the ticket windows, and that’s always troubling for Speedway officials.

“If I’m disappointed, I’m disappointed for our team, because they’ve worked so hard to make sure we put on a great show for the fans,” said Chip Wile, in his first Speedweeks as Speedway president.

Looking ahead to the four-day run beginning Thursday, Wile feels better about things.

“You can’t control the weather, but looking at the long-range forecast, it looks good,” he said. “We want to make sure everybody gets to enjoy the Florida weather we get to enjoy all the time.”

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