Daytona 500 Qualifying Update

Daytona International Speedway -- 02/17/08

Author: Becca Gladden

Published: Saturday Feb 16 2008 6:19pm

Okay, so maybe you really do need to be a rocket scientist to make sense of the practice and qualifying schedule and resultant speed data for the Daytona 500.

But I'll give it my best shot.

On a typical NASCAR race weekend with a Sunday Cup race, there are two or three practice sessions - a morning and possibly an afternoon practice on Friday with a final "Happy Hour" practice session on Saturday, and one qualifying event, generally on Friday afternoon.

Clearly, the Daytona 500 is not your typical NASCAR Cup race.

With regard to practice, we have had a total of six Cup practice sessions dating back to last weekend: two practices last Saturday (02/09), two practices Wednesday (02/13), one practice Friday (02/15), and one practice Saturday (02/16).

The main reason for this strange extended week of practice sessions is the even stranger way that qualifying is handled for the Daytona 500 - an initial qualifying session a week before the race that sets only the front row, and a pair of split qualifying sessions midweek (the Duel 150s) that establish the remainder of the field and the starting lineup.

For the purposes of this practice and qualifying update, I am going to focus on the most recent events - the Duel 150s on Thursday and the final two practice sessions - Friday's practice and Saturday's Happy Hour.

But first we have to take a quick look back at last Sunday's qualifying day because it set the front row for the big race. Hendrick Motorsports' Jimmie Johnson (5:1), reigning NASCAR champ and 2006 Daytona 500 winner, paced the field Sunday with a 187.075 mile per hour lap to score the pole for the 500. Michael Waltrip in a Toyota, whose 2007 Daytona 500 was marred by a cheating scandal, starts on the outside pole with a 186.734 mile per hour lap.

With the front row now set, it was on to Thursday's Gatorade Duel 150s in which all the cars desiring to race in the Daytona 500 were split into two groups based on their finishing order in Sunday's qualifying. Each group ran a 150-mile qualifying race that determined not only the starting order for the Daytona 500, but which of the go-or-home-cars not already in the field would make the race.

Leading up to the Duels, the big news of the week was the engine woes faced by all four Hendrick cars during Wednesday's practice, which also affected some cars at Haas/CNC (Hendrick-supplied engines) and some Toyota engines. The issue, blamed on lifter coating, put all four Hendrick drivers - favorites for a 500 win - at the rear of their respective Duel races after changing engines.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. (3:1) won the first Duel race while Denny Hamlin (10:1) won the second, allaying any fears of engine concerns for both Hendrick and Toyota once the problem was identified and the engines were changed out. Hamlin's win represented the first Cup victory for Toyota in a competitive race, though it was a non-points event. Pole sitter Jimmie Johnson finished 23rd of 27 cars in the first Duel.

Rounding out the top 5 in the first Duel were the Dodge cars of Reed Sorenson (50:1) and Ryan Newman (25:1), the Chevy of Casey Mears (30:1), and the Ford of Carl Edwards (30:1).

In the second Duel, it was Hamlin's teammate Tony Stewart (5:1) coming in second, Jeff Gordon (5:1) third, Kasey Kahne (50:1) fourth in a Dodge, and Mark Martin (25:1) fifth in a DEI Chevy. Stewart won Saturday's Nationwide race as well.

Some of the dominant names from the Duels reappeared in Friday's practice, although some new ones climbed the speed chart as well. Friday's top 5 practice speeds were Reed Sorenson, who also looked stout in his Duel race, at 190.351 miles per hour, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr., Martin Truex Jr. (30:1), Scott Riggs (60:1) in the No. 66 Chevy, and Kevin Harvick (25:1) in a tie with Jimmie Johnson who rebounded nicely from his disappointing Duel showing. The slowest cars Friday were Juan Pablo Montoya (75:1) and Joe Nemechek.

Saturday's Happy Hour practice was paced by Carl Edwards at 191.034 miles per hour. Edwards' Roush Ford also performed well in his Duel race. Rounding out the top 5 were John Andretti, Kyle Petty, Robby Gordon (100:1), and Greg Biffle (60:1).

My sleeper pick from earlier in the week - Clint Bowyer in a Richard Childress Chevy - is currently showing 40:1 nascar odds. He finished 18th in the first Gatorade Duel and starts 31st on Sunday.

Drivers who failed to qualify for the Daytona 500 are Boris Said, Patrick Carpentier, Jacques Villeneuve, AJ Allmendinger, Eric McClure, Ken Schrader, Bill Elliott, Sterling Marlin, Stanton Barrett, and Carl Long.