When Thursday's Gatorade Duel 150-mile races (2:19 p.m. EST, SPEED) take the green flag, drivers will have wildly different goals and strategies.

Of the 39 drivers who are already locked in to Sunday's Daytona 500, about half seem to plan on playing it safe and avoiding big pack racing – even if it leaves them with a poor starting position for the main event. The other half feel it's important to drive in race conditions to properly prepare for the 500.

And then there's a third group – drivers like Michael Waltrip and Kenny Wallace, who don't yet have a spot in the field – who plan on going all-out to claim one of the two transfer spots available in each Duel.

Needless to say, the intersection of those differing agendas could prove to be dicey.

"I want to use this race car in the Daytona 500," said Jimmie Johnson, whose No. 48 team plans to play it safe. "I don't want to lose it in practice or in the Duel."

"The biggest variable in the equation is just don't hurt the car that we've got," Tony Stewart said. "We're locked into the race, and I think even if we don't get the starting spot we want, I still think you can come from the back much easier and get to the front. The biggest thing is to just take care of the race car."

But other drivers feel they need to learn something from the Duel in order to properly prepare for the Daytona 500.

"This might sound dumb, but I am not too worried about if we crash the car," Carl Edwards said. "We have a good backup car, and it is identical and should be just as fast.

"My mission is to go race and learn."

Jeff Gordon said he was taking a similar approach, adding his team was in "aggressive" mode.

"As much as I don't want to scratch it up, we want to go out there and put ourselves in race conditions," he said.

Some drivers, of course, don't have a choice. Those on the bubble must go for a transfer spot or risk missing out on the most important race of the year.

For those men, wrecking the car has no consequence.

What: Gatorade Duel 150-mile races

Time: 2:19 p.m. EST Thursday (second race begins after the first one concludes)

TV: SPEED

Denny Hamlin, to put it nicely, has historically stunk in the Daytona 500.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver will race in the Daytona 500 for the seventh time on Sunday and enters the "Great American Race" with a best career finish of 17th.

His average finish? 23.2.

That's not a misprint. Hamlin has never finished in the top 15, even though he's always been running at the finish.

What gives?

"Our biggest race of the year is the biggest crapshoot," Hamlin said Wednesday. "Most of the time, you've just got to be lucky. That's a lot of our sport nowadays.

"Usually, whoever wins the Super Bowl, it's because they've performed well during the regular season and they performed in the playoffs. For us, it's just like...where you end up (is) because (if) you avoid the wrecks or not."

For that reason, Hamlin doesn't feel he has anything to prove despite his lackluster Daytona finishes.

"For us, our season starts five or six races in," he said. "That's when we know where we stand as far as competition is concerned. ... Here, your fate – you decide some of it, but most of it you don't."

Denny Hamlin's Daytona 500 results:

2006 – 30th

2007 – 28th

2008 – 17th

2009 – 26th

2010 – 17th

2011 – 21st

Average finish – 23.2

Immediately after the chaos of the Bud Shootout subsided, several drivers declared they would race in the back for the Daytona 500.

Trying to navigate the pack for 500 miles, they said, seems too risky. It's a recipe for getting caught up in a crash too early, and it would be better to wait until the final laps to make a charge.

But Dale Earnhardt Jr. has no plans of hanging back in the field, he said Wednesday at Daytona International Speedway.

"I just don't spend a lot of time thinking about riding in the back," he said. "I don't waste a minute of the day doing that."

Earnhardt Jr. has gotten burned recently by hanging in the rear of the field for too long during restrictor-plate races. He and tandem drafting partner Jimmie Johnson tried it twice last season – in the summer Daytona race and fall Talladega race – but they mistimed their charge and couldn't get to the front before the race ended.

"I'm not good at riding in the back, because I've never made it back to the front at the right time," Earnhardt Jr. said. "Me and Jimmie tried to do that the last couple trips, and when it was time to go back to the front, we weren't fast enough or they were too far ahead or the track was too blocked. I don't think I've ever used that style and made it work for me."

Besides, Earnhardt Jr. said, it's a misconception that drivers make the decision to drop to the back prior to the race. The Hendrick Motorsports driver said it's often a choice made depending on how the race is developing.

"You're like, 'Man, these guys are probably going to wreck. I don't want to be right behind them, and I can't get around them because they're three- or four-wide or whatever,'" he said. "So you move back a couple hundred yards. I think it's poor judgment to think about it during the week, because you're not thinking about going and winning the race. You're thinking about going backward."

Anyway, it sounds as if Earnhardt Jr. fans may have something to cheer about during the race on Sunday.

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A new NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team is vowing to race every lap this season despite an under-the-radar entrance into the sport and a sponsor that has yet to be officially announced.

The BK Racing team purchased the former assets of Red Bull Racing last month and got the keys to its new shop on Feb. 1. Since then, the organization has been scrambling to prepare its No. 83 and No. 93 cars for the Daytona 500 -- all with an air of mystery surrounding the scramble.

Why a mystery, you ask? Because the "BK" in BK Racing stands for "Burger King," but the fast food chain hasn't officially announced its involvement.

Its logos are on the car and the firesuits of drivers Landon Cassill and David Reutimann, but Burger King is not actually an owner of the team.

"BK Racing is owned by a small group that spun off from TRG Motorsports -- a few disgruntled investors who decided to get together and do it themselves," said Wayne Press, one of BK Racing's primary backers. "We wanted to have control of what was going on with the team, which we never had before. If we were going to put the money up, we'd rather control our own destiny."

Front Row Motorsports has sponsorship from fast food restaurants like Taco Bell and Long John Silver's because team owner Bob Jenkins is a major franchisee. But BK Racing has a different kind of partnership with Burger King -- it's just one that hasn't yet been publicly detailed.

In the meantime, the team is preferring not to make a big splash in the media and instead hoping its performance and results will speak for themselves. BK Racing is a full-season effort and will not start-and-park, Press said.

Those who have been around NASCAR for a number of years are familiar with new owners and teams who believe they can make it in the Sprint Cup Series and fail, but Press said there's reason to believe BK Racing has staying power.

"We survived on a shoestring budget with the 71, and we're so much better funded going into this venture with the 83 and 93," Press said. "BK Racing is here to race every race, every weekend, every lap."

Veteran general manager Harry McMullen, who was also formerly with TRG, said he believes joining BK Racing is a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

"There are 10,000 people walking around the garage and walking around the streets saying, 'We're going to do this and we're going to do that,' and you can just tell [they aren't],'" McMullen said. "This group here, you just know [they are]. There's a big vision here and I'm certain we're going to fulfill it."

The team will run Toyotas (the former Red Bull cars), and the crew includes former Greg Biffle crew chief Doug Richert. Travis Kvapil will run the No. 93 car when Reutimann is not in it.

"When you shake hands with these gentlemen, you walk out and say, 'You know what? These guys are the real deal,'" McMullen said. "You can just feel it."

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will attend the Daytona 500 for the second straight year as a VIP guest, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported Tuesday afternoon.

The News-Journal, citing a local campaign volunteer, said Romney canceled plans for a Friday fundraiser hosted by International Speedway Corp. CEO Lesa France Kennedy in order to focus on campaigning in Michigan, where he is struggling in primary polling.

But Romney will still come to Daytona Beach, Fla., for a "quick visit" on the morning of the race, the newspaper said.

NASCAR referred questions about Romney's visit to Daytona International Speedway. The Speedway said nothing has been finalized as of Tuesday evening.

Romney also attended last year's Daytona 500, though he wasn't quite in the same spotlight he is now. He was present in the pre-race drivers' meeting and shook hands with drivers and NASCAR officials.

NASCAR, owned privately by the France family, is mostly a Republican sport with Southern roots. Prominent Republican politicians often make appearances at the Daytona 500, as Romney did last year and Sarah Palin did in 2010.

Former President George W. Bush kicked off his 2004 re-election campaign at the Daytona 500, where he was grand marshal.

President Obama has never been to a NASCAR race, though his wife, Michelle, was co-grand marshal for last year's Chase finale at Homestead.

So this is happening: HBO's Eastbound and Down will sponsor a NASCAR Nationwide Series car – the No. 50 driven by T.J. Bell – in Saturday's DRIVE4COPD 300 race at Daytona International Speedway.

And in true Kenny Powers fashion, Bell's MAKE Motorsports team is going all-out with the paint scheme, as you can see in the pictures below the jump.

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First of all, let's forget that NASCAR wants us to believe Danica Patrick is driving for Tommy Baldwin Racing.

While she technically may be a TBR driver under the rules, Patrick is really a Stewart-Haas Racing employee who was hired by the team, still wears SHR shirts and will drive for SHR in the Sprint Cup Series next year.

So we can assume, then, that her team owner and teammate Tony Stewart will do whatever he can to help Patrick have a successful Cup debut in Sunday's Daytona 500.

But if it came down to it, I wondered, would Stewart really push Patrick to the win and forego his chance at his first-ever 500 victory?

"Absolutely," Stewart said last week.

That seems hard to believe, doesn't it? But here's how Stewart sees it: It's impossible to predict the circumstances at the end of the race, so there's a scenario in which pushing Patrick to the win in a two-car draft could actually result in the best finish possible for himself.

"The hard part is if you break that thing up and try to make a move to go from second to first, you can easily go from second to eighth by breaking the pair up," he said. "... You analyze it at the end, but if it's close and the pack is right next to you, you do what you have to do to get the best finish. You have to make a calculated decision to get the best result you can."

That line of thinking makes sense if you remember last year's Daytona 500 finish. Carl Edwards was right behind Trevor Bayne and pushed him to the win, but Edwards himself had no other options because other cars were so close.

If the situation with Patrick and Stewart in the Daytona 500 is similar to the end of the Bud Shootout – where Stewart was leading and Kyle Busch pulled out at the last second to pass him at the line – Stewart would undoubtedly ditch Patrick for the win.

Stewart flipped the question around and said it was just as likely Patrick's No. 10 car could be pushing his No. 14 car in the final laps, too. But he emphasized there was no way to plan or make a decision on what to do until the white flag is in the air.

"There is nobody out here going to say, 'I'm not going to try to win the race,' but you have to try and analyze what is going on around you," he said. "You may not even have the option of pulling out to try to win it; you may get freight-trained if you do. You have to make the best educated decision at the time."

When I pressed Stewart further and wondered whether he would really trust a rookie in her first Cup race to determine his Daytona 500 fate, his patience for the line of questioning began to run out.

"If that is your partner, you have to," he said. "... Just because you say that is who you want to run with doesn't mean that is even who you are going to be paired up with at the end.

"You guys are getting way too far ahead and putting the cart before the horse here. There are so many things that have to happen to have those pairings at the end of the day, and you have to analyze the situation when you get to it."

Patrick, though, could win the Daytona 500 in Stewart's mind – whether he is pushing her or not.

"Anything can happen here; it is anybody's ballgame," he said. "She did a really good job in July last year in the Nationwide race when I ran with her. I was really impressed at how smooth she was and how good a job she did in the two-car deal.

"There is no doubt in my mind she has the talent to do it."

On the day after a wreck-filled Budweiser Shootout, drivers lined up on pit road and patiently waited their turn for Daytona 500 qualifying. That process seems to take forever at Daytona, so some drivers were a little bored and looked for something to pass the time.

Part of that included talking to members of the media – voluntarily! – while waiting their turn.

I asked several drivers about if the Bud Shootout would change how they planned to race the Daytona 500, since it was obvious pack racing had returned. Most said they would like to hang back and stay out of the pack – because that was a good way to get caught in a crash – but some said they preferred to race up front and be ahead of the trouble.

But one of them (I'm not using his name because the conversation wasn't on the record) had a different reason for wanting to be among the leaders.

"Well, I want to be at the front around lap 100, I know that much," he said.

The driver was referring to the new $200,000 bonus given to whoever is leading at the halfway point of Sunday's race. When it was announced, I dismissed the bonus as a gimmick and figured no driver would pay much attention to it.

But the driver in question sure was aware of it.

"Think about it," he said. "If you're leading at halfway and you get $200,000, then the race pays a minimum of, what, $400,000?"

Actually, it's more like $450,000. One year ago, the 43rd-place finisher received more than $250,000; not a bad day at the office, really.

But in the grand scheme of things, isn't $200,000 a drop in the bucket for these multimillionaire drivers?

"Heck no!" the driver said (though he's not one of the richer ones).

So there you have it. At least one driver in the 43-car field is impressed enough with the prospect of an extra $200,000 to try and lead at halfway.

Overall, the Daytona 500 purse this year will be $19.1 million – a record for the event. The winner is guaranteed to collect a minimum of $1.43 million (and that's not including the contingency awards that get added in if the driver's team is part of those programs).

Here are the minimum payouts for the top five finishers:

Winner – $1,431,325

Second place – $1,050,075

Third place – $759,600

Fourth place – $609,900

Fifth place – $486,550

Of course, it's worth noting that drivers don't get to keep all of their race winnings. A standard driver contract is a base salary plus 40-50 percent of the winnings (the rest goes to the team) and 33 percent of merchandise sales.

But even if they only keep half, that would still be enough money to make most of us happy for a long, long time.

Manufacturers continue to roll out their new NASCAR Sprint Cup Series cars for 2013, with Dodge announcing Monday it will unveil its Charger prior to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway race.

Ford showed off its new Fusion during last month's NASCAR Media Tour, and Toyota is expected to unveil its model in the next couple months. Chevrolet will take longer because its 2013 car will be based on a 2014 street model that has not been announced.

If you can't wait, this link contains some spy pictures taken of the new Dodge at Penske Racing.

Back in the day, the crewmen who serviced Darrell Waltrip's Mountain Dew-sponsored No. 11 car were known as the "Dew Crew."

The pit crew wore shirts with the moniker on the back and had bright green pants, making them hard to miss during the 1981 and 1982 NASCAR seasons.

Now, after a lengthy hiatus, the "Dew Crew" is returning just in time for the Daytona 500. But this time, it has a much different meaning.

Pepsi will officially re-launch the Dew Crew on Thursday to mark its Diet Mountain Dew sponsorship of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports team this season. The new Dew Crew extends well beyond the pit crew, though, to Earnhardt Jr.'s fans themselves.

"They want the fans to form a 'Dew Crew,' as if they're fans of this car," Earnhardt Jr. said. "So the Dew Crew is the fan base. ... It's the fans that are following that car, and the fans of Diet Mountain Dew and regular Mountain Dew, I suppose."

The Dew Crew will be a virtual online hub for Earnhardt Jr. fans – it will live on Facebook and have its own URL, dewcrew.com (the site isn't active yet) – where they can interact with each other and make decisions that will be reflected at the track.

What kind of decisions? PepsiCo's Christie Shan said fans would be able to vote on things like paint schemes or the design of Earnhardt Jr.'s firesuit.

"We want the fans to be recognized," she said.

Shan said the company's internal numbers show Earnhardt Jr. has more than 30 million fans, but only about one million of those are active in social media. Naturally, PepsiCo sees a big opportunity to expand that platform.

To entice fans to become part of the Dew Crew, Shan said Diet Mountain Dew is giving away Earnhardt Jr.'s firesuit from Sunday's Daytona 500.

Even if he wins?

"Yeah, we'll still give it away," she said. "We hope he does win."

NASCAR is once again turning to the UFC for help with the coveted 18-to-24-year-old male demographic.

Jon Jones, the UFC light heavyweight champ who will fight Rashad Evans at April's UFC 145, has been named an honorary race official for the 2012 Daytona 500.

It's not one of the race's highest honors – like grand marshal or honorary starter – but Jones will still be introduced at the pre-race drivers' meeting and ride in the pace car prior to the green flag.

Jones, who was named "Fighter of the Year" at the 2011 World MMA Awards, beat three former UFC champs in a single season last year.

He becomes the latest UFC fighter to visit a NASCAR race; middleweight champion Anderson Silva was an honorary pace car driver at Phoenix last fall, and bantamweight champ Dominick Cruz will do the same honors at Phoenix in two weeks.

Cruz's visit next month will mark the third time in four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events that a UFC fighter has been named an honorary race official.

Why the influx of MMA fighters? FOX is now broadcasting some UFC events, but it likely also has something to do with NASCAR's struggles to attract young male fans – which UFC has plenty of.

Both sports benefit when there's crossover between their large and distinctly different fan bases, and it's a smart marketing move to try and bring them together.

If you didn't spend every moment of Sunday on Twitter or watching FOX (perhaps you had a job or a family that required some attention), your head might be spinning a bit over Daytona 500 qualifying.

Who is in the field? Who is still on the outside? What's next?

Let's try to break it down:

• Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle took the top two spots for the Daytona 500 during Sunday's qualifying session, but those are the only two drivers who officially have a starting spot. In reality, though, any team which has top 35 owner points from last season – whether they earned them or obtained them – is also in the 500; they just don't know where they'll start yet.

• Aside from the front row, the other 41 starting positions are still up for grabs and will be determined during Thursday's Gatorade Duels, which are a pair of 150-mile qualifying races unique to Daytona. The starting lineup for every other race is determined by a standard time trials session.

• In addition to Edwards and Biffle, Sunday's qualifying did provide some celebration for some other drivers – but for different reasons. NASCAR sets aside three Daytona 500 spots for the fastest drivers in qualifying, so Trevor Bayne, Tony Raines and David Stremme – all who arrived at Daytona with no guarantee they'd be in the race – clinched a berth in the 500 thanks to their speeds.

• In addition, Terry Labonte will be in the race because he was the most recent past Cup champion without a guaranteed spot. NASCAR reserves one spot in every race for a driver such as Labonte, if needed.

• For those not in the field, there are two ways to make the Daytona 500 on Thursday. First, a driver such as Michael Waltrip could simply race his way into the big show by claiming one of the two transfer spots available in each Duel. Second, a driver like Kenny Wallace could rely on someone already with a timed spot – Bayne, Raines or Stremme – to finish in a transfer position and allow Wallace to move up.

• Bill Elliott is in a similar situation, though he could make the race if Labonte claims a transfer spot on Thursday.

• Aside from Waltrip, Wallace and Elliott, he other drivers on the outside looking in are: Dave Blaney, Joe Nemechek, Michael McDowell, Mike Wallace, Robby Gordon, Robert Richardson Jr., and JJ Yeley.

To make it simple: There are 10 go-or-go-home drivers and only four more spots available for the Daytona 500. The Gatorade Duels will set the full lineup on Thursday afternoon (1 p.m. EST, SPEED).

NASCAR disallowed Clint Bowyer's Daytona 500 qualifying time on Sunday after his car was found to be too low in the left front.

Bowyer's team sent the No. 15 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota through inspection after the driver posted the 22nd-fastest time of the session, but it flunked the height sticks officials use to make sure cars are within the rules.

After letting the car "settle," the team tried again but had the same result. Bowyer will now have to start his Gatorade Duel – he's in the second of the two 150-mile races on Thursday – in the rear of the field.

"Really very surprised," MWR competition director Scott Miller said. "I don't know if we got something stuck in the bleed hole in the shock, but the front just didn't come back up. It's all the same stuff we ran in practice, and it was coming back up.

"We'll go over there and get to the bottom of it and see what happened."

A NASCAR spokesman said there will not be any further penalties to the team, which is standard procedure in such situations.

Miller said the action was not intentional.

"It's never good to be in this position right here, but as far as the (Gatorade) 150 goes, you're going to be to the front and to the back of that thing," he said.

David Stremme pointed to his No. 30 car – a fire-engine red vehicle with a noticeable lack of sponsorship – and gestured to the handful of crewmen working around it.

"That's the whole team, right there," Stremme said with a chuckle. "We've got eight guys and three dogs at the shop every day."

Logic says Stremme and his Inception Motorsports team have no business being in the Daytona 500. The team is underfunded, unsponsored, undermanned and less than one year old – not exactly a recipe for making NASCAR's biggest event.

But logic doesn't drive race cars, and Stremme's 26th-place qualifying effort during Sunday's Daytona 500 time trials turned out to be just enough to lock him in to the Great American Race.

Now, no matter what happens next week, Stremme's team will take home at least $250,000 in winnings.

"It's a big, big deal for us," Stremme said. "Now we can race some more races coming up and keep going."

With a limited budget, Inception Motorsports did not even bring a backup car to Daytona International Speedway. The one Stremme qualified is the only superspeedway car owned by the team.

Stremme and his investor partners were able to purchase the car after the team start-and-parked in 16 of the 18 Cup races it made in 2011.

"Some people criticize start-and-parks, but we do it to raise money to keep racing," Stremme said. "That's how we got through the winter, and that's how we were able to buy this speedway car."

"We had enough money to go to Phoenix and Vegas, but that's just money from last year that we won. I'm not taking a dime out of it; I don't get paid nothin'."

The former Chip Ganassi Racing driver, 34, believes he belongs at the Sprint Cup Series level. He decided to try and prove that point by starting Inception Motorsports with an investment group last year.

In the offseason, Inception switched from Chevrolet to Toyota after qualifying for 18 of the 23 races it entered in 2011. Stremme and the team arrived in Daytona hopeful they could somehow make the race – but it was far from a sure thing.

"We unloaded off truck, and right there we were borderline to get locked in," he said. "We said to ourselves, 'Well, we might have a chance.'"

The next order of business is finding a sponsor. Stremme said that interested parties can visit InceptionMotorsports.com for more information.

"We can give somebody the exposure a sponsor needs at a minimal value in a big-time area," he said. "We can operate a lot cheaper than other teams, and our goal is to try to run a full season at a minimal cost.

"I think it's a great deal. Hopefully, somebody will jump on board and believe in what we can do."

Winning the pole position for next Sunday's running of the Daytona 500 likely won't do much to take away Carl Edwards' pain of a close Sprint Cup Series championship loss last season.

But it can't hurt, either.

Edwards will start from the top spot for the 2012 Daytona 500 alongside Roush Fenway Racing teammate Greg Biffle. Last year's Chase runner-up turned a lap of 194.738 mph, just ahead of Biffle's 194.087. That amounts to one tenth of a second.

"This is amazing," Edwards said. "... Coming down here, I didn't really consider the pole as something that was a possibility, so this is huge."

"We're so excited to have two of our cars on the front row," Biffle said. "A team effort all around."

The pole win marked Edwards' first in the Daytona 500 and 12th overall for manufacturer Ford. It's the second pole for team owner Jack Roush.

But Sunday's session wasn't all about the front row. Four drivers without guaranteed spots heading into Speedweeks were given locked-in positions as a result of their fast times.

Defending Daytona 500 champion Trevor Bayne was the fastest among those, and he'll be joined by Tony Raines and David Stremme. In addition, Terry Labonte is in the field thanks to a past champion's provisional.

Here are the qualifying results – note: NOT the starting lineup -- from Daytona 500 qualifying (non-guaranteed drivers in bold):

1. Carl Edwards
2. Greg Biffle
3. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
4. Marcos Ambrose
5. Casey Mears
6. Jeff Gordon
7. Martin Truex Jr.
8. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
9. Trevor Bayne * (clinched berth in Daytona 500)
10. Tony Stewart
11. Mark Martin
12. Jimmie Johnson
13. Aric Almirola
14. Paul Menard
15. David Ragan
16. Matt Kenseth
17. Ryan Newman
18. AJ Allmendinger
19. Brad Keselowski
20. Kevin Harvick
21. Joey Logano
22. Clint Bowyer
23. Jeff Burton
24. Juan Pablo Montoya
25. Kasey Kahne
26. Tony Raines * (clinched berth in Daytona 500)
27. David Stremme * (clinched berth in Daytona 500)
28. Kyle Busch
29. Jamie McMurray
30. Danica Patrick
31. Kenny Wallace
32. Terry Labonte * (guaranteed spot via past champion's provisional)
33. Dave Blaney
34. Kurt Busch
35. Elliott Sadler
36. Michael Waltrip
37. Joe Nemechek
38. Denny Hamlin
39. Regan Smith
40. Michael McDowell
41. Landon Cassill
42. David Gilliland
43. Bobby Labonte
44. Bill Elliott
45. Mike Wallace
46. David Reutimann
47. Robert Richardson Jr.
48. Robby Gordon
49. JJ Yeley

Just 12 hours after the 2012 edition of the Budweiser Shootout took the checkered flag, NASCAR announced new eligibility standards for the 2013 race.

And in this case, what's new is old.

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Unlike every other NASCAR race this season, the qualifying order for the Daytona 500 was not set by the first practice speeds but rather a random draw.

The lottery balls chose Paul Menard and Jamie McMurray to lead off today’s qualifying session (1 p.m. EST, FOX) – which determines the pole position and outside pole position for next Sunday’s 500 – and for David Stremme and Michael McDowell to wrap things up.

Drivers with top 35 owner points will still qualify first (as usual), followed by the drivers who don’t have guaranteed starting spots. That’s where the real drama is today, because three of those drivers (plus a past champion) will be able to lock themselves into the field based on speeds.

No one wants to have to wait until Thursday’s Gatorade Duel to get into the Daytona 500, so today’s session could be huge for drivers without the promise of a starting spot like Trevor Bayne, Michael Waltrip and Kenny Wallace.

Here’s the order of how they’ll roll off the grid today for Daytona 500 qualifying:

• Paul Menard
• Jamie McMurray
• Kurt Busch
• Casey Mears
• Carl Edwards
• Joey Logano
• Denny Hamlin
• Ryan Newman
• Greg Biffle
• Marcos Ambrose
• Tony Stewart
• Danica Patrick
• Brad Keselowski
• Aric Almirola
• Bobby Labonte
• Jeff Gordon
• Jeff Burton
• Kevin Harvick
• Juan Pablo Montoya
• AJ Allmendinger
• Elliott Sadler
• Kyle Busch
• Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
• Jimmie Johnson
• Dale Earnhardt Jr.
• Landon Cassill
• Martin Truex Jr.
• Matt Kenseth
• Regan Smith
• Mark Martin
• Kasey Kahne
• Clint Bowyer
• David Reutimann
• David Ragan
• David Gilliland

Continue reading this post »

It's Daytona 500 qualifying day at Daytona International Speedway and we've got the start time and some other facts about qualifying for you below.

What time does qualifying start? The most prestigious qualifying session in NASCAR begins at 1:05 p.m. EST today – a session that actually does little toward setting the actual Daytona 500 lineup. Drivers will get two laps apiece, and there's not much more to do than try to put the car on the bottom of the track and hope it goes fast. But everyone wants to win the pole, because it generates a week of publicity heading into NASCAR's Super Bowl.

What happens today? Officially, the Daytona 500 qualifying session only locks in two spots: The pole position and the outside pole position. But it will also allow three other drivers – who don't have a guaranteed spot in the 500 – to clinch a berth in the race based on their speed. The rest of the non-guaranteed drivers will have to rely on Thursday's Gatorade Duels to try and make the field. The Duels set the starting order for the Daytona 500, except for the two top spots decided today.

TV and radio: Today's qualifying session can be seen on FOX. If you aren't near a TV, the radio broadcast can be found on your local Motor Racing Network (MRN) affiliate. Click here to see a list of stations where you can listen (or you can also listen online for free here).

Weather: The unofficial NASCAR weatherman predicts rain will threaten today's qualifying session, though he feels it may dissipate by the late afternoon hours. NASCAR plans to wait as long as possible today to try and qualify, and would then bump qualifying to Monday if needed (instead of canceling it and setting the order by the rulebook).

Last time: Many fans were delighted last year when Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the pole for the Daytona 500, hoping it would lead to another 500 win from NASCAR's most popular driver. It didn't happen, though. Winning the pole for Daytona isn't worth much but bragging rights, when it comes down to it.

The mangled sheet metal and car parts were strewn throughout the Daytona International Speedway garage like the set of a disaster movie. And many of the men who drove the machines – even the ones who escaped unscathed – did not look particularly happy.

"Ain't much racing anymore," Clint Bowyer said, walking through the garage. "Just wait your turn to wreck."

"I just feel bad, because I can't do anything to make the car faster for the guys," Ryan Newman said, making the same walk moments later. "You're just at the mercy of the situation. It's not good."

"I don't know what to say," Jeff Burton said. "Plate racing is a huge challenge. One of the great things about the tandem (racing) was it separated the pack; one of the bad things about the tandem is I guess people thought it was boring."

And so we've arrived at this: The 2012 Bud Shootout turned into a Saturday night Demolition Derby, finishing with only 10 cars on the lead lap and half the field in the garage.

But that might not be a bad thing. Depending on your perspective, the race was either a disgrace to NASCAR or one of the most entertaining Shootouts in years.

The fans had told NASCAR they hated the two-car tandem drafts, which had become a phenomenon and dominated Daytona Speedweeks in 2011, so officials reacted by making changes to limit the drafting.

Saturday's Bud Shootout proved the changes worked, restoring the old-style pack racing.

"It was really like you just rewound the clock to three years ago," sixth-place finisher Greg Biffle said.

But eliminating the two-car drafts also turned out to be a case of "Be careful what you wish for." The return of the big packs meant a comeback for the "Big One" – the massive multi-car pileups that have made Daytona and its sister track Talladega famous.

"Look at the guys working on those cars," one disgusted crew member said. "Pack racing is real 'fun,' huh?"

As it turned out, there wasn't a "Big One" on Saturday night, though; there was a "Big Three."

A trio of nasty crashes wiped out most of the contenders and left the race up to Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch to decide. Busch, who had made jaw-dropping saves to keep his car intact and avoid wrecks, beat Stewart to the finish line in the closest-ever Bud Shootout result.

Not surprisingly, both Stewart and Busch were among those quite pleased with the pack racing.

"I had more fun as a driver tonight than what we've had in the past," Stewart said. "... This is a lot more fun than the two-car stuff."

"It's all in the drivers' hands, how boring or how exciting we want to make the race," Busch said. "I think tonight's was pretty exciting."

There were other happy drivers, too – including a couple whose nights ended prematurely.

"I like this kind of racing better," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said after crashing out of the race. "At least I know what to expect. I feel like I have a better chance with this style than I did last year, for damn sure."

Even Jeff Gordon, who went flipping across the track and barrel-rolled for the first time in his racing career, said he approved of the pack racing.

"It's pretty wild and crazy, but I like this better than what we had last year, definitely," he said.

But other drivers saw it completely differently.

"You're just running into each other," Brad Keselowski said. "Just a bunch of angry drivers in a traffic jam. It's difficult."

It all comes down to personal preference. Just as with NASCAR fans, the drivers aren't close to a consensus on the preferred form of restrictor-plate racing.

But love it or hate it, pack racing is back. And there are 500 more miles of it to come next Sunday.

"I think that's what the fans want to see, you know?" Biffle said. "And we were only three-wide tonight. Wait until the 500. We're going to be four-wide."

The 2012 Bud Shootout is quickly turning into a Saturday night demolition derby.

Marcos Ambrose hit Joey Logano in the left rear, triggering a nasty six-car wreck during NASCAR's preseason exhibition race with 20 laps to go at Daytona International Speedway.

The crash destroyed the cars of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. – all three of them contenders to win – as well as Matt Kenseth, Ambrose and Logano.

"I didn't see anything," Earnhardt Jr. said. "We all just kind of went up in the fence."

"When you get hit there, it just starts spinning you out before you know it," Logano said. "It's unfortunate. I felt like I had a car that was capable of winning, for sure."

Kevin Harvick criticized some of the more inexperienced drivers for not understanding that drivers should not push one another in the left rear corner.

There are 14 laps remaining in the race.

Clint Bowyer went for a spin through the Daytona International Speedway grass on Saturday night after he was spun by Michael Waltrip Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. with 44 laps remaining in the Bud Shootout.

Bowyer was trying to change lanes and go around Carl Edwards, but Truex missed the memo. When Bowyer went high, Truex hooked the No. 15 car and sent it skidding out of the pack, across the pavement and into the grass.

The Bud Shootout has been a wild affair thus far. The two-car drafts seem to be gone for sure, but it's brought back the hold-your-breath, wait-for-a-wreck racing.

"It is going to be chaotic," Paul Menard said after being caught in an early 'Big One.' "We have to figure out if we want to just ride around or not, because it is a big, big chance you are going to wreck."

Menard said the racing is "way more out of control" than last year.

David Ragan, who triggered the first wreck with Menard, said NASCAR "definitely accomplished their goal" of eliminating the two-car drafts.

"We can't run together very long at all unless we're overheating, so I think a lap or two is really about all," he said.

There will be 39 laps to go when the race restarts.

Well that didn't take long.

Big pack racing has apparently returned to Daytona International Speedway, but so too has the 'Big One.'

With Dale Earnhardt Jr. leading on lap 8 of Saturday night's Bud Shootout, David Ragan inadvertently turned Paul Menard, setting off a fiery chain reaction which collected about a dozen cars.

In addition to Menard and Ragan, the cars of Kasey Kahne, Denny Hamlin, Michael Waltrip and Matt Kenseth were destroyed. Drivers Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer and Tony Stewart were also among those to sustain damage.

The Bud Shootout was viewed as a key test to see how the racing would be in the Daytona 500. Last year's event was dominated by two-car tandem drafts, which were unpopular with fans.

If the early going of tonight's race is any indication, the two-car drafts won't be as widespread in next week's race. On the flip side, multi-car wrecks could be more prevalent.

On the lap 15 restart, Earnhardt Jr. leads Kevin Harvick.

NASCAR's most popular driver jumped out to the lead on the first lap of Saturday night's Bud Shootout at Daytona International Speedway and continues to lead in the early going.

The exhibition race marks the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season and serves as a preview to next Sunday's Daytona 500.

Tonight's race is a 75-lap event split into two segments: An opening 25-lap run followed by a 10-minute break and a 50-lap dash to the finish.

Four cars had to start in the rear of the field as the result of damage from a Friday practice crash: Brad Keselowski, AJ Allmendinger, Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch.

The race is a key test to see if NASCAR's rules package has succeeded in eliminating – or at least reducing – the dreaded two-car drafts that fans quickly came to hate when they emerged last year.

Kurt Busch is the defending race winner of the event.

NASCAR vice president of operations Steve O'Donnell met with a small group of reporters on Saturday at Daytona International Speedway for a candid discussion about NASCAR policies and rules. The topics included point swaps, qualifying, the top 35 rule and rookie of the year eligibility.

Below are some of the highlights of the discussion:

Swapping points

O'Donnell said NASCAR is well aware of how fans feel about teams obtaining top 35 owner points in order to get a guaranteed spot in the Daytona 500. But NASCAR will continue to allow the transactions because many of them are in the best interests in the sport, according to O'Donnell.

"It's a challenge explaining it," he said. "It's a difficult thing to explain to the fans. We get that. But we've got to have healthy car owners out there, and that's ultimately what we try to do – make sure the garage is as healthy as possible."

In the recent controversy over Danica Patrick's move from Stewart-Haas Racing to Tommy Baldwin Racing, fans and media were upset that NASCAR was allowing the teams to make a joke out of the top 35 system – in which teams inside the top 35 of the owner points are guaranteed a position for the next race.

The move was pitched as Patrick leaving SHR for Baldwin's team and splitting the No. 10 car with David Reutimann. But in reality, Patrick won't be driving the same equipment Reutimann will.

But O'Donnell insisted Patrick was a Tommy Baldwin Racing driver in every sense of the rule. Patrick will be required to drive chassis certified as belonging to Baldwin, and Baldwin himself will be listed as Patrick's crew chief for every race (her previously named crew chief, Greg Zipadelli, will be considered a "race strategist").

"We thought this made sense," O'Donnell said. "This is not a points swap at all; it's a driver coming over (to another team), no different than other drivers have done in the past."

But it is different. Patrick will drive for Stewart-Haas Racing in 2013 and beyond and SHR will likely supply Baldwin with cars for Patrick to use.

The deal gained approval, O'Donnell acknowledged, partially because NASCAR factored in the health of Baldwin's small, independent team.

"If you go back in history, there have been a lot of partnerships that have been put together which allowed teams to get back on their feet a little bit, and that's part of this," he said. "I would say helping Tommy was definitely part of this. Obviously we can't show favoritism, but it's in the best interests of the sport to have an owner like Tommy Baldwin be healthy. For us, that's a good thing."

NASCAR will not consider changing its policy against selling points, O'Donnell said. To obtain another team's points, the owner on the receiving end must still take a minority interest in that team.

Qualifying and top 35 rule

NASCAR is looking at different ways to make qualifying "as exciting as possible," O'Donnell said, but that does not include heat races.

However, it could include adjustments to the top 35 rule, such as reducing the number of teams who are locked in to the field.

"As we go and talk to the owners, letting them know this is the challenge we're faced with, is there something else that would do the same thing (as the top 35) that would allow us to bring back some of the excitement in qualifying?" O'Donnell said. "We've adjusted it in Nationwide and Trucks before based on (car counts)."

But O'Donnell said NASCAR is not considering scrapping the top 35 rule altogether.

Rookie of the Year

As recently as Friday, NASCAR had been considering a change to the Rookie of the Year eligibility that would have allowed Aric Almirola to compete for the title. Ultimately, officials decided it was too late.

NASCAR has no viable rookie class in the Sprint Cup Series this season and it wants to use the award to highlight and promote young drivers.

In the future, O'Donnell said NASCAR might ease the restriction on the amount of races a driver can run before losing ROY eligibility. Currently, the limit is seven races for a driver who has declared to compete for points in a given series.

Starting in 2013, NASCAR could expand the rules to allow drivers who have run a half season – or even more – before losing their rookie status. In fact, a "rookie" could mean any driver who has not raced a full season in that series.

Other topics

O'Donnell said NASCAR will have one more Saturday qualifying session than last year. The sanctioning body is looking at ways to make the weekend schedule more efficient and will tinker with different concepts in the first half of this season.

Similarly, NASCAR wants to find a way to allow young drivers to get more testing time but still maintain a testing policy that helps maintain parity among the teams.

Four drivers in tonight's Bud Shootout field had to pull out their backup cars following Friday's practice crash at Daytona International Speedway, and NASCAR decided they'll have to start in the back of the pack as a result.

That means Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski will lose their top-three starting spots, with Kurt Busch (formerly sixth) AJ Allmendinger (ninth) joining them in the rear of the field.

The Bud Shootout lineup was set by a draw last night, and Kyle Busch drew the No. 2 spot (Martin Truex Jr. got the pole). Keselowski was third.

NASCAR considered letting the four drivers maintain their starting positions – which would go against the typical weekend procedure – but ultimately decided that because none of the backup cars had been on track, it could be a safety issue.

The race begins at 8:29 p.m. Eastern and will be televised on FOX.

Here's how the Bud Shootout starting lineup will shape up tonight when the green flag flies (this is unofficial since the statistics don't account for cars dropping to the back):

1. Martin Truex Jr.
2. Jamie McMurray
3. David Ragan
4. Greg Biffle
5. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
6. Joey Logano
7. Carl Edwards
8. Jeff Burton
9. Ryan Newman
10. Jeff Gordon
11. Tony Stewart
12. Denny Hamlin
13. Clint Bowyer
14. Jimmie Johnson
15. Kasey Kahne
16. Michael Waltrip
17. Marcos Ambrose
18. Kevin Harvick
19. Matt Kenseth
20. Paul Menard
21. Juan Pablo Montoya
22. Kyle Busch
23. Brad Keselowski
24. Kurt Busch
25. AJ Allmendinger

Elliott Sadler has spent the last three years mulling over a mistake in the 2009 Daytona 500, wondering if he'd ever get a chance to redeem himself.

And when he had no ride for last year's 500, Sadler began to think he wouldn't have a shot at the redemption and glory he so craves. But an offseason phone call from his friend and Nationwide Series team owner Richard Childress changed all that.

Sadler will drive Richard Childress Racing's No. 33 car in the 'Great American Race' and has a locked-in spot thanks to Clint Bowyer's points from last year.

He plans to work with Jeff Burton during the race and figures to have a realistic shot at winning the whole thing.

"It would make my life, man," Sadler said.

Sadler said he can't get over the 2009 race because a small mistake cost him the chance to be a Daytona 500 champion for life.

In that race, Sadler was leading as rain approached. On what turned out to be the final lap of green-flag racing, Sadler let Matt Kenseth slip by him. A caution then came out due to a wreck, and the race was eventually red-flagged due to rain and never restarted.

That gave the win to Kenseth and denied Sadler of achieving his childhood dream.

"To tell you I don't think about it, I'd be lying through my teeth at you," Sadler said.

The circumstances have haunted Sadler ever since. But a phone call from Childress gave him renewed hopes of a Daytona 500 win.

Childress typically calls Sadler once or twice per week to talk about hunting, ask how Sadler's family is doing or ask the veteran driver's opinion of a team decision.

Around the start of the new year, though, Childress left Sadler an urgent message: "Hey, I need to talk to you."

"I didn't know if that was good or bad," Sadler said.

But Childress was calling with some very good news.

"He just said, 'Would you be interested in running the Daytona 500 if I could find sponsorship?'" Sadler recalled, chuckling at his own reaction. "I was like, 'Hell yes! Yes sir! I would love to.'

"He said, 'Well, we're talking to some people. We're going to use your name and see if they want to do this deal. I think you could go down there and win that damn race.' And I was like, 'Yes sir!'"

Childress built him a brand new car – sponsored by General Mills and Kroger – for next Sunday's race, and Sadler is optimistic he can go all-out for the victory.

"I would love to win this race," Sadler said. "... We come down here to win the race."

A candid and funny Danica Patrick is featured in a new series of Facebook videos produced by Nationwide Insurance, the NASCAR series sponsor who hopes Patrick's presence will help drive more interest in stock-car racing's second-tier circuit.

In the five-part series, called "Danica Patrick: Inside Track," Patrick discuses various racing topics – from her race-day routine to interacting with NASCAR fans.

Below the jump is an exclusive sample clip in which Patrick talks about what a typical conversation with another driver is like and what fans might not realize while watching a race:

Continue reading this post »

It's NASCAR race night at Daytona International Speedway and we've got the actual race start time, the starting lineup and some other facts about tonight's exhibition race for you below.

What time does the race start tonight? The Bud Shootout is listed as an 8 p.m. Eastern start time, but it's important to note the green flag won't actually fly until 8:29 p.m. So if you're looking to tune in just as the race is about to start, perhaps flip on your TV at 8:17 – that's when the command to start engines will be given by a few members of the military.

Race name/distance: The Bud Shootout is a non-points invitational featuring the top 20 drivers in the point standings last year, plus any drivers who have won a previous Shootout or a points race at Daytona. Some eligible drivers (such as Trevor Bayne) are not entered due to lack of funding, but there are 25 drivers in the race overall. The race is a 75-lap event (187.5 miles) which features two segments: A 25-lap opening segment, a 10-minute pit stop and a 50-lap run to the finish.

TV and radio: Tonight's race can be seen on FOX. Every Sprint Cup race will be on FOX for the first part of the season. If you aren't near a TV, the radio broadcast can be found on your local Motor Racing Network (MRN) affiliate. Click here to see a list of stations where you can listen (or you can also listen online for free here).

National anthem: The country group Little Big Town will perform a pre-race concert and then sing the national anthem. Next week, the Daytona 500 national anthem will be sung by Train's Pat Monahan.

Tickets: The Bud Shootout typically draws a decent crowd, but it's certainly not sold out. If you want to take a chance on getting last-minute tickets, you'll be OK.

Weather: The unofficial NASCAR weatherman says there's a slight chance of rain showers tonight, but the race should be able to take place. He predicts the temperature will be around 70 degrees for the start.

Last time: In what seems like a lifetime ago, Kurt Busch won the 2011 Bud Shootout for Penske Racing. Obviously, it would be a bigger deal if Busch won this year's race – he's driving for Phoenix Racing now, which has just 18 employees.

Starting lineup for tonight's Bud Shootout at Daytona International Speedway:

1. Martin Truex Jr.
2. Kyle Busch
3. Brad Keselowski
4. Jamie McMurray
5. David Ragan
6. Kurt Busch
7. Greg Biffle
8. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
9. AJ Allmendinger
10. Joey Logano
11. Carl Edwards
12. Jeff Burton
13. Ryan Newman
14. Jeff Gordon
15. Tony Stewart
16. Denny Hamlin
17. Clint Bowyer
18. Jimmie Johnson
19. Kasey Kahne
20. Michael Waltrip
21. Marcos Ambrose
22. Kevin Harvick
23. Matt Kenseth
24. Paul Menard
25. Juan Pablo Montoya