CUP: Duels Ready To Roll At Daytona

Sprint Cup

CUP: Duels Ready To Roll At Daytona

Dale Earnhardt Jr. will start the Daytona 500 from the back of the field...

Tom Jensen | Posted February 17, 2011 Daytona Beach, FL

Dale Earnhardt Jr. will start his Gatorade Duel in a backup car. (Photo: Getty Images)

With Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s crash in Daytona 500 practice Wednesday, today’s Gatorade Duels take on added importance, as the winner of the first Duel qualifying race will lead the field to the flag in Sunday’s big race.

Earnhardt qualified on the pole for the Daytona 500, but yesterday’s crash means he’ll start both today’s first Duel and the 500 from the back of the pack.

Officially, Earnhardt will still be credited with winning the 500 pole, but on the warm-up laps Sunday, he’ll drop to the back of the field. The third qualifier will move up to the inside of Row One, once Earnhardt falls to the rear. And since the third qualifier will be whoever wins today’s first Duel, that means the winner of today’s first Duel will start the Daytona 500 from the pole position.

Unfortunately for Earnhardt, though, even if he wins today’s qualifying race, he still will start the Daytona 500 from the rear of the field on Sunday.

That’s but one of several subplots for today’s races.

SPEED’s coverage of the Gatorade Duels begins today at 1 p.m. ET with “NASCAR RaceDay.” The races follow at 2 p.m. live on SPEED.

Earnhardt and second-fast qualifier Jeff Gordon locked themselves into the 500 field last Sunday, during Daytona 500 qualifying. Those two drivers, plus 33 others who finished in the top 35 in 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup owner points, are guaranteed to make the field.

Four others outside the top 35 locked themselves in on Sunday, as well: Bill Elliott, Travis Kvapil and Joe Nemechek were the fastest three qualifiers outside the top 35, and Terry Labonte will race in the 500 because he is the most recent past series champion not otherwise locked in.

The top two finishers in each Duel who are not locked in already will advance to the Daytona 500.

If Elliott, Kvapil, Nemechek or Labonte finishes in one of the transfer spots in the Duel, the next fastest drivers in qualifying would make the race. They are, in order: Michael Waltrip, Dave Blaney, Todd Bodine and Kevin Conway.

Each Duel will have 24 cars.

In Duel One, the field will consist of odd-number finishers in the top 35 in 2010 owner points. Duel Two will be the even-numbered finishers. Additional qualified cars that weren’t in the final top 35 in last season's owner points are alternated between the two Duel fields using an odd-even format.

Jeff Gordon crashed hard at Richmond last weekend. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Drivers trying to make the Daytona 500 in the first Duel are Blaney, Conway, Michael McDowell and J.J. Yeley. Two of them will advance into the 500 and two will go home after Thursday qualifying events.

In the second Duel, five drivers will duke it out for the last two transfer spots: Waltrip, Bodine, Casey Mears, Brian Keselowski and Derrike Cope.

In an effort to break up the two-car drafts and subsequent 200-plus mile per hour speeds seen in the Budweiser Shootout, NASCAR has mandated smaller restrictor plates today and on Sunday. NASCAR also will cut the air-fuel flow on engines used in the NASCAR Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series.

Gordon, who will start the second Duel from the pole, thinks it should be an interesting day.

“Right now I’m just thinking about the 150’s (Duels) and who we partner-up with to push,” he said. “And then what you’re going to see, which I think is kind of cool, what you’re going to see in the 150s is a swap-over, which is what we practiced in testing. In almost the entire test, anytime we were drafting, was how fast you could go from being the guy pushing to being the guy out front being pushed and how much time you could really save in that swap-over. So I think that’s probably what you’re going to see. It’s not an exact science. Sometimes it goes smooth and sometimes it doesn’t; and if it doesn’t go smoothly, then it’s about the cars behind you and how fast they swallow you up.”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Jensen

MORE BY THIS AUTHOR

CUP: Voting Day At NASCAR Hall Of Fame
The next five members of the NASCAR Hall of Fame will be voted in…
CUP: Monday NASCAR Notebook
Jimmie Johnson has the most victories of any active driver at Charlotte…
CUP: EXCLUSIVE - No Crew Chief Changes At SHR
Ryan Newman had the best finish of any of the Stewart-Haas drivers…