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]."

Gilliland, 30, didn't even attempt to contain his excitement in the garage Saturday afternoon, knowing he could win his second consecutive restrictor plate pole, in only his second attempt, with a brand-new car.

"I'm very excited and I feel really good about our odds," Gilliland said. "I feel good about how strong we've been able to come out of the box, and with Todd Parrott and the success he's had here, it's an honor to come here and to be able to drive these cars.

"Ninety-nine percent of the work that goes into these cars is done at the shop and I think it's just a great tribute to our shop, our shop foreman and the guys working together to come here and to have two great cars."

Two-time Daytona 500 winner Sterling Marlin, who has one pole in 25 career Daytona 500 attempts, in 1992 while driving a Ford for legendary owner Junior Johnson, was third in the first session (48.534 seconds, 185.437 mph) and followed that up by making one run and logging the second best time in the second (48.363 / 186.093).

"That might be good enough for the front row but I think [Rudd's] going to be really tough to beat," Marlin said. "They were really quick down here in testing. We've gained on 'em, but they shot that [48].19 and we had a [48].36 -- I don't know if that was all they had and we might be able to pick up another 10th [of a second]."

Marlin was particularly happy to have a fast No. 14 Ginn Racing Chevrolet since he's not one of the 36 locked-in cars in the field, which includes 1999 Cup champion Dale Jarrett.

"You just hope that nothing happens, because you've got two more laps to run," Marlin said of Sunday's qualifying session. "We've been fastest of the go or go-home cars both sessions, so you do the things you do to the car and you hope it makes it faster.

"You'd like to sit on the front row and not have to worry about it, but if we get in the top three of the go or go-home cars, we'll be OK, speed-wise."

A second car in the top five of the second practice, Jeremy Mayfield's No. 36 Bill Davis Racing Toyota, which was fourth and the best Toyota in both sessions, also isn't locked into the field for the season opener and Mayfield said it's been forcing his team to focus.

"It's hard to weigh it all out," Mayfield said. "And that's what I keep telling everybody, is that you can't try to take it all at one time because you'll be in trouble. You have to take it one step at a time to get your job done.

"That means just taking it one practice session at a time, one qualifying session at a time and one race at a time. I know that sounds weird but if you try to take it in one big pill, you'll screw it all up.

"I can walk out of here satisfied [Saturday] because we gave it 110 percent, we didn't make any mistakes -- and that's what we've got to do every day until the first five races are over with.

"Right now, teams that are in the top 35 in the [owner] standings can screw up a practice session or a qualifying session -- but we can't. We can't make any mistakes."

Last year's front row starters for the 500, Jeff Burton and three-time race winner Jeff Gordon, had divergent fortunes Saturday.

Burton's No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet was 47th in the first practice, but had a problem with its scoring transponder on its first run that did not register.

Burton's crew chief Scott Miller said he was satisfied enough with the way his team had tested that he was not compelled to even make an attempt in the second practice.

Gordon was fourth in the first practice (48.625 seconds, 185.090 mph) and fifth in the second (48.501 / 185.563) on his only attempt, but wasn't too optimistic about his chances.

"Nobody's got anything for those Yates cars [though] maybe Marlin does," Gordon said. "We're just trying to get the best starting position that we can for the [qualifying races]."

Yates' drivers Gilliland and Jarrett qualified on the front row for last fall's UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega Superspeedway and the Yates Fords were qualifying dynamos at all four plate races last season.

The No. 88 Fusion, which Jarrett drove for the last 12 seasons before moving to Michael Waltrip Racing's Toyota program for this year, averaged a fourth place start in 2006 and was never worse than seventh.

The No. 38 Fusion, which was driven by Elliott Sadler for the first two-thirds of the season and Gilliland in the last 14 races, averaged a fifth place start in 2006 and also won the spring Talladega pole with Sadler.

On Saturday, Rudd continued to prove he's thriving in a mentor's role to his teammate who, while not a youngster, has only 15 Nextel Cup starts. Gilliland will start his first Budweiser Shootout, a special event for pole winners, Saturday night.

Rudd said he would sit with a team radio in a prime vantage point in the grandstands to observe his teammate and the cars' handling characteristics.

"You won't hear anything from me unless I've got something positive to say," Rudd said. "I just want to watch the cars and how they behave after a certain number of laps, to see if they pick up the aero push we always used to have in traffic."

Rudd's impact isn't lost on Gilliland, who scored a stunning Busch Series victory last summer at Kentucky Speedway for independent owner Clay Andrews.

"It's awesome," Gilliland said of working with Rudd. "We've worked together for just over a month and we've become really good friends. He's welcomed me with open arms, and as a rookie driver, you come to these tracks -- like Daytona, I've never been here and I've never raced here.

"You get out of the car [after practice] and you've got a question, and if you can't get it answered, you go out in the next practice and you've got another question. Pretty soon you've got all these questions, and no answers -- and you kind of get lost in the thought process.

"To be able to get out [of your car] and to go to somebody like Ricky Rudd, where you don't even have to question or think about whether he's being straight-up with you. He's 100 percent right-on with everything with me and to be able to have those questions answered immediately just gives me a little bit more confidence -- and that's what this deal's all about.

"A big part of it is the driver having confidence."