Daytona 500's locked-in trio feel relief, get focused

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Trust me, a 190-plus mph lap around Daytona International Speedway gets your attention in spades -- and that's if everything is pointed in the right direction and running smoothly.

So just imagine what thoughts might be trying to inject themselves into your extremely focused mind while you're concentrating on that lap -- if in the back of your mind you're considering just how critical cutting a fast one is.

Watch the Duel

The two 150-mile qualifying races will determine the starting lineup for the Daytona 500.

• 2 p.m. ET Thursday on SPEED

So how about if you came to Speedweeks with a six-figure bill of expenses -- before your car ever turned a wheel on the track. That's pressure, I think.

For the 18 drivers who're entered in the $18.5 million Daytona 500, but have only seven starting positions available to them due to NASCAR's restrictive top-35 owners' points lock-in system, the Great American Race's qualifying procedure is excruciating.

And that's putting it mildly.

And so for three guys in that group this past Saturday, who smashed their way out of that restrictive envelope to lock themselves into the 500, with its accompanying quarter-mil payoff, Daytona's garage was almost heaven on earth.

Joe Nemechek, Daytona track record holder Bill Elliott and second-year Sprint Cup driver Scott Speed were the three guys who locked themselves into the field, joining the top 35 from the 2009 owners' points and 2000 Cup champion Bobby Labonte, who's in no matter what happens via a past champion's provisional.

If you looked at their words on paper, the emotion just oozed in flavors that soared beyond black and white. If you saw them this past Saturday, the relief -- the pure ecstasy -- was obvious.

If you had been on pit road the Thursday of Speedweeks 2009, when Nemechek's self-owned, lightly sponsored car that was hundredths of a second shy of getting into the field on speed missed the big race by one position in his Gatorade Duel 150 in a flurry of late-lap shuffles, you'd appreciate even more the fact that Nemechek almost needed a 200-yard tether to bring him back to earth.

He was that psyched up.

Elliott and Speed

Daytona qualifying

• Happy trio
• Qual Results
• Duel Lineup 1
• Duel Lineup 2

Elliott's been there and done that. The Wood Brothers have a good sponsorship package from Ford, via its Motorcraft and Quick Lane service brands. But he also was pretty tickled about what's a real opportunity to win his third Daytona 500.

"It's a team effort," Elliott said. "I know from the time Homestead ended last fall to right now, [crew chief] David Hyder and these guys have worked their rear ends off to get down here and do what they need to do.

"They've got one of the nicest race cars out here. I'm telling you, this is a gorgeous race car, very well put together and I'm just proud to race it come Sunday afternoon."

Speed made the race last year, but his rookie campaign had its rough spots and he eventually fell into the go-or-go-home camp and missed several races. But the crazily upbeat Californian is dead serious about his Red Bull Racing Team.

"The most satisfying thing is how well the team has done in the offseason, and this is very much a direct show of what the guys have done to each car," Speed said. "The effect we have as drivers out there [at this track] is obviously quite little, so the fact that my guys have worked so hard in the offseason and we weren't amazingly quick in the one run we did in practice, they've brought their 'A' game so far.

"To start off 2010 so well, making good decisions and putting it down when we needed to -- the most important qualifying of the year -- they did their thing and I give them an A-plus."

But Nemechek, who's started the season with an enormously aggressive, two-car program in both Sprint Cup and the Nationwide series, was the poster child for jubilation realized.

"It's just so cool -- what a relief," Nemechek said. "My stomach's been knotted up and it's been awful since we've been down here -- but now it feels good."

The Daytona 500 will be another day. But for right now -- even though he's got other cars to worry about -- Nemechek's deservedly feeling on top of the world.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.

Related:
• Veteran's day: Martin on pole, Nemechek, Elliott qualify on time