DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Joey Logano won the first Daytona 500 qualifying race Thursday night under caution when a crash in overtime cost Corey LaJoie a spot in “The Great American Race” and gave Casey Mears a coveted spot in NASCAR's opener.

Logano in a Ford for Team Penske had control of the race when a caution for a five-car accident with four laps remaining brought out the yellow. Austin Dillon got too big of a push from Chris Buescher and it caused him to run into Bubba Wallace and spin Wallace in an incident that sent the race into overtime at Daytona International Speedway.

Logano had the lead on the restart for the two-lap sprint to the finish with LaJoie in position to claim the one open spot in the 41-car field. But LaJoie was spun on the final lap and Mears missed hitting him by mere inches.

By ducking through, Mears beat out LaJoie and Chandler Smith for the transfer spot from the first 150-mile qualifying race. Mears recovered to make the Daytona 500 from an earlier incident on pit road.

“I just know that we made it, the car is damaged, but we got it in," Mears said. “I can't believe we are here based on our night and the way that it went. I didn't know who was in and whether or not we made it and then the guys started going nuts on the radio.”

Mears is driving for Garage 66, a team owned by former driver Carl Long with just 10 employees in Daytona. He's in pursuit of making 500 career Cup Series starts and received financial assistance from former NASCAR team owner Bob Germain to enter Daytona.

Mears, a veteran who last competed full-time in 2016, will make his 495th start Sunday.

“Everything was completely stacked against us,” Mears said. “I can't believe we're here. It feels good to be here.”

He said he's targeting superspeedways and road courses for the five starts he needs to hit 500 this season.

Logano, a three-time Cup champion, won the qualifier for the fourth time in his career. He won the Daytona 500 in 2015.

“I do think we have a strong race car, obviously a fast race car, we proved that,” Logano said. “There’s definitely some things I want to work on, no doubt. It’s always like that. We have to have speed. We’ll work on some handling pieces, but I feel like we’re pretty close.”

Ryan Blaney, teammates with Logano at Penske, finished second. Dillon was third.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing