DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- For 15 drivers required to qualify on speed, including two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip, Thursday's Gatorade Duel 150 qualifying races at Daytona International Speedway are the ultimate pressure cooker.
For six drivers, including four-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson, the qualifying races for Sunday's Daytona 500 present a much-needed chance to shake down backup cars, after practice crashes on Wednesday eliminated their primary rides.
After qualifying concluded Saturday, 39 drivers were locked into the 43-car Daytona 500 field, among them pole winner Mark Martin, who will lead the field to the green flag in the first Duel, and second-place starter Dale Earnhardt Jr., who will pace the second Duel.
Thirty-five drivers, including Martin and Earnhardt, are guaranteed starting spots in the Great American race by virtue of top-35 finishes in owner points last year--or through deals in which they acquired the owner points.
Bill Elliott, Scott Speed and Joe Nemechek also know they'll race Sunday, having posted the top three speeds in Saturday's qualifying among drivers required to make the field on speed. Bobby Labonte has a past champion's provisional as a safety net, should he fail to race his way into the field on Thursday.
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The Duels will set the starting order behind Martin and Earnhardt, and they'll also determine which four additional drivers--two per race--will make NASCAR's most prestigious event.
Waltrip has started 23 straight Daytona 500s, but having ceded his full-time ride to Martin Truex Jr., he must qualify on speed.
Johnson went to a backup car after contact with Denny Hamlin in a practice crash damaged the front end of his car. Joey Logano, David Reutimann, Clint Bowyer, Mike Bliss and Derrike Cope also sustained damage severe enough to require backups.
"Yeah, unfortunately the only thing I hit was the No. 11 car (Hamlin's)," Johnson said. "When he checked up, I got into him really hard, but it did some damage to the front-end of the car, and we just can't get it right here (at Daytona).
"So we know we've got a great (backup) racecar in the truck. We'll bring it out and send this one back to Charlotte and let it be repaired the right way in Charlotte in case we need it after the Duels. So we have a good strategy. We certainly wanted to keep this car--and from the outside it doesn't look all that damaged--but the nose is twisted and it just needs to be right if we're going to have it for a backup down here."
