DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The blue and yellow car sat in a distant garage stall on sagging tires, its front end crumpled from contact with the outside wall. Crewmen working with electric saws cut away large swaths of sheet metal, and yanked parts out from underneath the hood. Michael Waltrip's hopes of making the Daytona 500 -- perhaps the final one of his career -- were equally as damaged, hinging on the actions of others after a crash knocked him out of Thursday's first qualifying event.

"It's looking grim," one team member admitted, on a raw and overcast afternoon at Daytona International Speedway, where the weather conditions matching the mood around the No. 51 truck. Waltrip had been in position to make NASCAR's biggest race, but suddenly he felt his vehicle get shaky, and suddenly he was sliding backward, and suddenly contact with the car of Regan Smith sent him sliding into the inside wall. Now they could only watch and wait and fret, their fate out of their hands. No one at Michael Waltrip Racing wanted their Daytona 500 hopes, and potentially the boss' career on NASCAR's signature track, to end like this.

But they had no choice in the matter. On the one day of the long NASCAR season where the focus is on the back of the field rather than the front, Waltrip needed either Scott Speed or Bobby Labonte to race their way in during Thursday's second Duel 150 qualifier. Under Daytona's complex qualifying criteria, that would allow Waltrip to fall back on his pole speed from last weekend, and still make the race. As emotionally challenging as the experience was, Waltrip was no stranger to it -- Thursday marked the third time since 2007 that he's had to race his way in.

And yet, this time around it all took on a greater significance. Despite his status as a two-time Daytona 500 champion, despite his position inside the top 35 in 2009 owner points, Waltrip didn't come to the big speedway with a guaranteed berth in the Great American Race. His points from last year had been assigned to his new hire, Martin Truex Jr., while Waltrip planned to scale back from a full schedule. Originally, that plan was between four and 12 races. Coming to Daytona, though, only two were definite -- a race at Talladega, and the Daytona 500. In the immediate aftermath of Thursday's accident, there was the distinct possibility that the last big race of Waltrip's NASCAR' career would end with an unceremonious thud.

After failing to qualify for the Coca-Cola 600 in 2007, Waltrip bought the entry of another car. He didn't want to do that this time. "I'm not going to buy my way in," he said. "I'm either going to make it on my time, or I'm going to load it up and go home. I just want to race, but I don't want to race like that. I don't want my last one to be like that."

But Thursday at Daytona is a strange day. It's an afternoon where 300 miles of racing essentially decide only four starting spots for the Daytona 500, where Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne can win qualifiers decided by five-hundredths and one-tenth of a second, respectively, and the moment still belongs to teams parked in the farthest reaches of the Sprint Cup garage. This stock-car version of Indianapolis 500 bump day is dominated by teams bereft of points or sponsorship or both, for whom just making the sport's biggest race is a victory all to itself.

"I actually feel like I've already won it," Michael McDowell said.

At no other moment does the spotlight fall on drivers like McDowell and Max Papis, the former in a blank fire suit and the latter without a previous NASCAR start at Daytona, who each raced their way in during the first qualifier, and sat before the cameras smiling as broadly as if they had just hoisted the Harley J. Earl Trophy. McDowell used a pit crew borrowed from Red Bull. He and Papis each drove cars built by Michael Waltrip Racing. McDowell finished 14th, Papis 15th in a field of 27 cars. It was good enough to make them feel like Junior Johnson for one afternoon. Welcome to Thursday at Daytona. (Continued)