The Gatorade Duel 150 qualifying races live on SPEED at 2 pm ET this Thursday, will feature 17 drivers fighting for the final four starting spots in Sunday’s Daytona 500...
Tom Jensen
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Posted February 09, 2009
Daytona Beach, FL
Jeremy Mayfield, driver of the No. 41 Toyota, is one of 17 drivers that will attempt to qualify for the Daytona 500 in the Gatorade Duel 150 qualifying races set for this Thursday at 2 pm ET live on SPEED. (LAT Photographic)
The Gatorade Duel 150 qualifying races, which will be televised live on SPEED at 2 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, will feature 17 drivers fighting for the final four starting spots in Sunday’s Daytona 500.
Based on qualifying results, Martin Truex Jr. will start the 500 from the pole in his Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Chevrolet Impala SS. He will be flanked on the outside of Row 1 by Mark Martin’s Hendrick Motorsports Chevy.
Also guaranteed of making the Daytona 500 are the remaining 33 cars in the top 35 in 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup owner points, plus Bill Elliott, Travis Kvapil, Tony Stewart and Terry Labonte. Elliott, Kvapil and Stewart qualified for the 500 by virtue of being the fastest three cars outside the top 35 during Sunday’s time trials. Labonte made it in because once Stewart was locked in, Labonte was next in line to receive the past champion’s provisional.
Thursday’s Duels will set the Daytona 500 starting lineup for positions 3-43, as well as determine the last four drivers to make the 500. In each Duel, the top two finishing drivers who weren’t previously locked into the Daytona 500 will make the race.
In the first Duel, the racers vying to advance to the 500 are: Joe Nemechek, Scott Riggs, Brad Keselowski, Kirk Shelmerdine, Tony Raines, Mike Skinner and Carl Long.
In the second Duel, Regan Smith, Boris Said, AJ Allmendinger, Jeremy Mayfield, Mike Wallace, Mike Garvey, Derrike Cope, Kelly Bires, Norm Benning and Geoff Bodine will try to make the 500.
It’s a tremendously nerve-wracking time for those teams still on the outside looking in. “You’ve got to be one of the top-two ‘go-or-go-homers’ to finish the race in the front,” said veteran Nemechek, who has pulled together his NEMCO Motorsports Toyota Camry entry in a matter of just a few weeks “Have to try to be smart and make it handle good and we’ll be all right.”
“I’m here, I got a shot and I’m going to dig hard,” said Riggs, who is driving a Tommy Baldwin Racing Toyota, which like Nemechek’s car carries no sponsorship at the moment.
The stakes are enormous. Making the Daytona 500 means a payout of at least $250,000, regardless of finishing position. Last year, Kenny Wallace’s 43rd-place run in the 500 was worth $256,735, which indeed would be a princely sum for some of the start-up teams that have just a handful of employees and low budgets.
And given that car owners like Tommy Baldwin, Nemechek, Mayfield and Shelmerdine are hoping to run the full NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule in 2009, whether or not they make the 500 will have enormous implications for how their seasons go.
Allmendinger, who is attempting to make the Daytona 500 for the first time after DNQs in 2007-08, put it into perspective. “The last two years, I put so much pressure on myself that for three days (prior to the Duels) I was on a knife’s edge of emotions,” said Allmendinger, driver of the No. 44 Richard Petty Motorsports Dodge. “Over the last two years, I learned that all I can do is go out and race as hard as I can, run my race and drive the wheels off the racecar like I always do. Leave everything on the racetrack. I’m just going to go try and relax for a couple days and focus on the good things that we did Saturday night and come back Thursday and try to race our way into the 500.”
