FanHouse GatoradeDuels

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Joe Gibbs Racing's Kyle Busch hasn't lost a step from 2008.

Well, the Kyle Busch from before the Chase for the Championship, that is.

Thursday afternoon, Busch took his No. 18 Toyota high and then low on the final lap of the second race of the Gatorade Duels at Daytona to block Mark Martin and Brian Vickers and score the victory in the 150-miler.

One would assume that this excruciatingly long process to find 43 suitable starters for Sunday's Daytona 500 might be totally worth it.

Think again.

Drivers and teams are forced through a process that literally takes six days to finally complete. One might expect that from a 24-hour endurance race, but this course sets up for Sunday's 500-mile showdown that normally takes just over three hours to complete.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- After what could possibly be described as the most boring day in all of NASCAR -- well, save for the middle laps at Pocono -- a pair of Martins had the hot hand during Sunday's qualifying for next Sunday's Daytona 500.

Earnhardt Ganassi Racing's Martin Truex Jr. will lead the Sprint Cup season-opener when the green flag waves, while the revitalized Mark Martin from the Hendrick Motorsports stable will start alongside. Truex's pole-winning speed of 188.001 mph just bested Martin's lap of 187.817 mph to earn the New Jersey driver just his second career pole.

Check out all of the NASCAR Fanhouse Daytona Speedweeks Coverage.
On Sunday, stop by for the live blog of the 50th Daytona 500 at 3:00pm/ET.

Things have changed quite a bit since the last time Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin competed against one another at Daytona International Speedway.

Last July, Stewart and Hamlin tangled early in the Pepsi 400 while up front, with Stewart blaming Hamlin for the wreck despite being behind his teammate.

In Thursday's second Gatorade Duel, one might have sensed that Stewart would have been boiling with anger after his teammate ducked low in the final laps and took his No. 20 out of the draft, and away from a win. Sure, Hamlin went on to win the 150-mile event, but the car behind him?

None other than Hamlin's teammate, Tony Stewart.

With the assistance of the No. 20, Hamlin was able to lead a single-file line to the checkered flag.

Jeff Gordon finished third with Kasey Kahne and Mark Martin just behind.

The second race of the two duels had much more drama and excitement than the first race that saw Dale Earnhardt Jr. continue his streak of perfection in racing events at Daytona in 2008.

Check out all of the NASCAR Fanhouse Daytona Speedweeks Coverage. On Sunday, stop by for the live blog of the 50th Daytona 500 at 3:00pm/ET.

Batting one thousand must be getting easier in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the first race of the Gatorade Duels at Daytona Thursday afternoon, his second win in as many races with his new team from Hendrick Motorsports.

Earnhardt Jr., who had to move to the back of the pack prior to the start of the race with a host of other drivers because of engine issues on Wednesday, found himself in sixth place by lap 12, and in the lead by lap 17.

He would lead 26 laps en route to his win, which locks the No. 88 into a third-place start in Sunday's Daytona 500. Without a doubt, Earnhardt Jr. will be a clear favorite to win the golden anniversary of The Great American Race.

Earnhardt Jr. won Saturday night's Budweiser Shootout.

Aside from Earnhardt Jr., Kenny Wallace and Brian Vickers were likely the two happiest people in Daytona after the first of two races Thursday. Both drivers are outside of the top-35 in owner points but managed to lock themselves in the field for the season's biggest race.

Wallace, racing for a team that he was fired from last season, took his Furniture Row No. 87 Chevrolet to an eighth-place finish. In post-race interviews, Wallace said he was "in a zone" and definitely couldn't be happier.

Check out all of the NASCAR Fanhouse Daytona Speedweeks Coverage. On Sunday, stop by for the live blog of the 50th Daytona 500 at 3:00pm/ET.


What: Gatorade Duels at Daytona (Qualifying races to set grid for the 50th Daytona 500)

Where: Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, FL

When: Thursday Afternoon, 2pm/ET, SPEED

Distance: 150 miles, 2 separate races (60 laps each)

Weather: Sunny, High near 63

Pole Winners: Jimme Johnson (Race No. 1; Will move to rear of field for start due to engine change); Michael Waltrip (Race No. 2)

2007 Champions: Tony Stewart (Race No. 1); Jeff Gordon (Race No. 2)

Predictions: Keep reading.

Etc: Thursday afternoon NASCAR racing on a picture-perfect Daytona afternoon with no points on the line.

If any of that garners your interest, you can officially call yourself a NASCAR fan.

Check out all of the NASCAR Fanhouse Daytona Speedweeks Coverage.

Wednesday wasn't happiness and joy for several teams in the Sprint Cup Series garage area at Daytona.

For starters, the practice times were impacted by rain showers that threw a wrench in the day's schedule. Luckily for them, though, the rains held off enough for engine problems to show their face during practice instead of during Thursday afternoon's Gatorade Duels.

All of the Hendrick Motorsports cars were affected -- Earnhardt, Gordon, Johnson & Mears -- as well as several Toyotas. Tony Stewart, Dale Jarrett, J.J. Yeley, A.J. Allmendinger and Kyle Busch all changed out their Toyota powerplants.

In addition, Scott Riggs, racing a fifth engine from Haas/CNC Racing swapped out his motor.

Hendrick Motorsports head engine builder Jeff Andrews blamed the issue on a bad coating on the lifters. Richie Gilmore, the engine builder for Richard Childress Racing and Dale Earnhardt Inc. -- a team that had no problems -- explained how the coating works:

"If the coating wears off just a little bit, it's like glass and then you have steel on steel and you have that coating going through your engine," said Richie Gilmore, who runs the joint engine program between Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Richard Childress Racing.

None of Gilmore's engines had lifter problems, but the issue had him and other teams scrambling to check their equipment following practice.

"Everybody's going to be pulling stuff apart and looking at it, and it might be a bigger issue," Gilmore said.

The coating isn't a manufacturer specific product, so its likely that Hendrick and the Toyota teams used the same product and a bad batch caused the problems.