Yates once again a big pole threat at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Robert Yates Racing ended Nextel Cup Series practice Saturday at Daytona International Speedway as prohibitive favorites to claim their fifth Bud Pole Award for the Daytona 500.

Yates' Ford Fusion drivers Ricky Rudd and David Gilliland ran a total of 14 laps -- seven apiece -- and were first and second in the first practice and one-three in the second as they attempt to score their second consecutive sweep of the front row at a restrictor plate race.

The best lap for Rudd's No. 88 Ford in the first, two-hour session was in 48.374 seconds; an average speed of 186.050 mph. Gilliland's No. 38 Ford was close behind in 48.446 / 185.774.

In the 90-minute second session, Rudd made one two-lap run and led the 61 cars that will compete for the pole at 2:10 p.m. ET Sunday with a 48.190-second, 186.761 mph effort. Gilliland was third in that session at 48.387 / 186.0.

Rudd, who's returning to full-time Cup racing after a season on the sidelines, has seen enough Daytona vagaries -- including his lone pole in 1983 and a second place start for Yates in 2000 -- to be cautious, but still optimistic.

"It would be hard to bet against the two Yates cars, it really would," Rudd said. "Even though anything can happen (Sunday). It's a real good possibility [winning the pole] and gosh, it's exciting.

"It's almost like an unfair advantage when you come to Daytona with a Yates car [because] all through the years, their stuff has just got a history of running good here. Even though they had it tough last year, their speedway stuff was pretty good so I'm excited about it."

Rudd's feeling mirrors that of team co-owner Doug Yates, who heads the Roush-Yates engine program.

"Having Ricky back on board is great, and it's exciting to come to Daytona any time, and when you have a chance to qualify well, it's even more exciting," Yates said. "You always look at different parts of your program and it's always nice when you can check off those boxes and say 'the speedway program's in good shape.'

"I'm sure I won't sleep any [Saturday] night, but all this [is thanks to] the hard work of the guys, [crew chiefs] Butch Hylton and Todd Parrott do a great job with these cars and [father] Robert and I take a lot of pride in Daytona.

"We've had an opportunity to win this race a couple times, we'd like to do it again and it starts [Sunday]." (Continued)