After the official practice session for the Daytona 500 was completed, the front row was a clean sweep for Robert Yates Racing with David Gilliland (below) starting his first 500 from pole (with a qulaifying speed of 186.320 mph) with team-mate Ricky Rudd (185.609 mph) alongside. Also impressive was Jaun Pablo Montoya who ended up 4th fastest overall (185.338 mph).
Given the unique qualifying procedure for the 500, the times below Rudd’s, while a good indicator of overall speed, don’t mean anything in terms of grid position. Places 3 to 39 on the grid will be detrmined by the results of the twin 150 mile Gatorade Duel races on Thursday.
In other Daytona news, Dale Earnhradt Jr has apologised for causing a multiple car wreck towards the end of last night’s Budweiser Shootout. The Shootout was won by Tony Stewart.
The Top 10 finishers of the Shootout were:
- Tony Stewart
- David Gilliland
- Kurt Busch
- Jimmie Johnson
- Kevin Harvick
- Mark Martin
- Kyle Busch
- Brian Vickers
- Jeff Burton
- Scott Riggs
UPDATE: SpeedTV is reporting that shortly after the conclusion of qualifying for the Daytona 500 NASCAR officials seized the No. 55 NAPA Toyota Camry of Michael Waltrip. The car’s intake manifold had been confiscated earlier today in pre-qualifying inspection and was to be examined at NASCAR R&D in Concord, N.C., this week. NASCAR officials indicated that Waltrip may not be able to race in the Duel 150s on Thursday. NASCAR officials also announced that the qualifying times of Matt Kenseth (who had qualified 11th) and Kasey Kahne (28th) had been disallowed due to illegal aerodynamic modifications.
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[...] 1 was won by Two-time Champion Tony Stewart (#20) who already has one victory to his credit at the track this week. Stewart lead 38 of the 62 laps first taking the front as early as lap [...]