Michael McDowell raced his way into the Daytona 500 lineup in the first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Gatorade duel. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Michael Waltrip wept.
So did “Mad” Max Papis.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Juan Pablo Montoya and a whole bunch of other drivers cursed.
Eleven different drivers and their respective teams went home with nothing to show for their toils.
And NASCAR officials surely were delighted and relieved at the outcome.
It was that kind of afternoon at Daytona International Raceway, where Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne won the two Gatorade Duel at Daytona qualifying races by a combined margin of 0.019 seconds. Johnson's victory over Kevin Harvick in Duel No. 1 was just 0.005 seconds, the second-closest Duel finish since the advent of electronic scoring in 1994.
When the dust had settled, Papis and Michael McDowell raced their way into the Daytona 500 lineup in the first duel, and Mike Bliss and Scott Speed did likewise in Duel No. 2. Because Speed had already locked into the field based on his Daytona 500 qualifying time, his finish allowed Waltrip, the next fastest qualifier, to make his way into the show, too.
It was a wild, unpredictable roller coaster of a day under cold gray Central Florida skies.
The best of times. The worst of times. That was Daytona on Thursday, which is definitely a day to remember.
Bliss will never forget it, certainly.
The journeyman driver inexplicably wrecked his Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet during practice yesterday and was forced to race his way in driving the team's back up car, which Scott Riggs put into the 500 last year. Without having turned a single lap of practice in the backup, Bliss finished 13th in the second Duel, good enough for a Daytona 500 starting spot.
And afterwards, Bliss uttered one of the best non-sequiturs heard in the Sprint Cup garage in a long time. Asked about the conditions he saw, Bliss pulled no punches. “It's kind of getting into handling racetrack, who has the best handling race-car, not just all real fast,” said Bliss. “I mean, brass balls makes a lot, too. So it just means, came down to who had the biggest huevos, whatever. However you say it in French.”
