Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mark Martin have the front row real estate for Sunday’s NASCAR Daytona 500. That was decided via timed qualifying runs.
After that, the Duel Gatorade runs are used to fill out the rest of the field. The top-35 in points are guaranteed in, but they fight for starting positions. The other 7 spots are raced for by those who were outside the top-35 in owners points from last year.
Behind the front row, will sit Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne, via their wins in the Gatorade qualifying runs. Positions through the Daytona 500 Lineup are determined by a mysterious scientific process that NASCAR came up with… (This NASCAR.com article from ’07 explains it well.) but for the moment, here’s the race field for Sunday.
A J Allmendinger in the No. 43 car
Other faves of NASCAR Bits & Pieces: Tony Stewart (6th), A.J. Allmendinger (15th), Ryan Newman (17th), Bobby Labonte (42nd). Mikey is starting 43rd. I’m a bit worried. It felt like every time I heard about a spin during practice or the qualifiers this week, Mikey was there! The poor guy has the worse luck some days.
Mark Martin is the oldest driver to take the pole position for the 500. Mark is 50-years-young!
Note: Should we worry that Denny and Brad are starting next to each other in row 13? If they can make it past the pace laps, that will be a good sign. Right?
Daytona 500 Lineup:
| Row | Pos | # | Pos | # | |||
| 1 | 1 | 5 | Mark Martin | 2 | 88 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | |
| 2 | 3 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | 4 | 9 | Kasey Kahne | |
| 3 | 5 | 29 | Kevin Harvick | 6 | 14 | Tony Stewart | |
| 4 | 7 | 18 | Kyle Busch | 8 | 42 | Juan Montoya | |
| 5 | 9 | 33 | Clint Bowyer | 10 | 2 | Kurt Busch | |
| 6 | 11 | 78 | Regan Smith | 12 | 19 | Elliott Sadler | |
| 7 | 13 | 1 | Jamie McMurray | 14 | 56 | Martin Truex Jr. | |
| 8 | 15 | 43 | A.J. Allmendinger | 16 | 20 | Joey Logano | |
| 9 | 17 | 39 | Ryan Newman | 18 | 47 | Marcos Ambrose | |
| 10 | 19 | 6 | David Ragan | 20 | 0 | David Reutimann | |
| 11 | 21 | 24 | Jeff Gordon | 22 | 83 | Brian Vickers | |
| 12 | 23 | 16 | Greg Biffle | 24 | 17 | Matt Kenseth | |
| 13 | 25 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | 26 | 12 | Brad Keselowski | |
| 14 | 27 | 99 | Carl Edwards | 28 | 36 | Mike Bliss | |
| 15 | 29 | 55 | Michael McDowell | 30 | 82 | Scott Speed | |
| 16 | 31 | 13 | Max Papis | 32 | 98 | Paul Menard | |
| 17 | 33 | 34 | John Andretti | 34 | 7 | Robby Gordon | |
| 18 | 35 | 37 | Travis Kvapil | 36 | 77 | Sam Hornish Jr. | |
| 19 | 37 | 38 | Robert Richardson Jr. | 38 | 26 | Boris Said | |
| 20 | 39 | 31 | Jeff Burton | 40 | 21 | Bill Elliott | |
| 21 | 41 | 87 | Joe Nemechek | 42 | 71 | Bobby Labonte | |
| 22 | 43 | 151 | Michael Waltrip |
Those who did not make the race that attempted to qualify were:
| Casey Mears |
| Todd Bodine |
| David Gilliland |
| Terry Cook* |
| Derrike Cope |
| Aric Almirola |
| Dave Blaney |
| Reed Sorenson |
| Mike Wallace |
| Norm Benning |
| Jeff Fuller |
See ya all at the races on Sunday for the Cup event!
Photos, courtesy of Getty Images for NASCAR.
