Mayfield, Riggs come from nowhere to make 500 grid (cont'd)

"That's what's cool, I've got Tony and Cecil Tipton and all kind of good guys on my team, and not one of them has talked about their salaries, I have no idea what I'm going to pay them. I'll pay 'em by the week and bonuses for the races we make, so we can keep going on."

They were the biggest surprises among the 17 go-or-go-home drivers that strove to make the Great American Race in a pair of 150-mile qualifying races. A.J. Allmendinger might have been the most relieved.

“

[Our crewman] wanted no money -- they just wanted to help. We have nobody getting paid right now and we have between 15 and 25 coming every single day working on [our team].

”

-- TOMMY BALDWIN

After a savvy, gutsy performance in the first qualifying race, Riggs finished eighth in the No. 36 Toyota and made his fifth Daytona 500 and the first for new Cup team owner Baldwin, in the 17th position.

Tony Stewart, who was a guaranteed starter anyway, earned the fifth starting spot in the 500 with his runner-up finish to Jeff Gordon in the first 150.

Mayfield used Furr's brave pit call for two tires to finish ninth in his 150 and earn the 18th spot in the 500.

"The car wasn't that bad on two [tires]," Mayfield said of the call. "We didn't know it was gonna be that good but we didn't have any other choice. I would have felt like [crap] if I would have taken four and had to be back there racing three or four guys to get in. I would rather hold 'em off than race them, so we had to keep track position."

Allmendinger, who inadvertently found himself in the middle of a "NASCAR bookkeeping" nightmare that forced his Richard Petty Motorsports team into the go-or-go-home camp, promised his team sponsor a 500 spot, and he delivered with a 10th place run in the 150 that earned his No. 44 Dodge team the 20th spot in the 500 and Allmendinger his Daytona 500 debut.

Other 500 qualifiers from the go-or-go-home camp include three men who got in via their qualifying speeds and will start 40th-42nd: Bill Elliott, Travis Kvapil and Regan Smith; plus 1996 champion Terry Labonte, who'll start 43rd using the past-champion provisional.

Riggs was most thankful after the finish he scored with the same chassis that Dave Blaney qualified second and finished third with at the 2007 Talladega event.

"I don't know what to say -- I'm just elated," said Riggs, who was jobless last month. "It feels like a win for us, considering all we've been through. These guys -- they all came together at the last minute. Tommy is so positive and so passionate about what he does and he puts 110 percent into it. I'm just thankful to be here."

But for every answered prayer was utter heartache. As Joe Nemechek put it, "one lap and one car" cost him his 15th consecutive start in the Great American Race. Nemechek had started every 500 since 1995, when he made his debut in his family-owned No. 87 Chevrolet.

Thursday, Nemechek started ninth but fell back as far as 18th with less than 10 laps to go. But adjustments to his No. 87 Toyota put him in a position to challenge as Riggs, who restarted fifth with four laps to go, fell back toward him.

"There at the end, I had a heckuva run going," Nemechek said. "And then [coming off Turn 2] the 26 [Jamie McMurray] lost the front end and slid up and pinched me up in the fence, there and killed my run."

After exiting his car on pit road, Nemechek said he had no definite plans of where he'd watch the second race.

"You just got to say a prayer, now," Nemechek said. "Man, it was a crazy race. That last lap, it was perfect because I was about 15 miles an hour faster than Scott Riggs at that time, and it ruined my day, right there."

It didn't work out for Nemechek, nor did it for Cup part-timer Boris Said, a former Daytona pole winner who earlier in the day announced a deal four months in the making that would give his No Fear Racing team the ability to make as many as 18 races this season.

In the second 150, Said was able to draft up into a qualified spot early in the race, but had a right front flat tire that tore the right front fender off his No. 08 Ford and ended his race.