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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Veteran drivers Brendan Gaughan and Elliott Sadler secured positions in next weekend’s Daytona 500 (Feb. 26, 2 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) thanks to their qualifying efforts Sunday at Daytona International Speedway.
Sadler and Gaughan were fastest among six drivers without secured spots in the 40-car field, guaranteeing their chance to race next weekend by virtue of their two-lap qualifying runs Sunday.
Thirty-six of the 40 starting positions are secured through team charters. The other four spots on the Daytona 500 grid include the two best qualifiers among Open teams (Sadler and Gaughan), plus the top Open finisher in each of Thursday’s Can-Am Duel races.
The 40-year-old NASCAR veteran Gaughan secured just his second Daytona 500 starting position thanks to his speed of 189.294 mph in the No. 75 Beard Oil Distributing Chevrolet — helping the young Beard Motorsports team to its Daytona 500 debut. The speed was 33rd overall among 42 entries, but fastest among the Open, non-Charter teams.
Gaughan finished 19th in the 2004 Daytona 500, which was his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series debut. It also is his only scheduled Monster Energy Series start as he will compete full time again in the NASCAR XFINITY Series for Richard Childress Racing.
“This is a team that’s never made a Cup race,” Gaughan said. “Nice owner and very nice group of guys. You never know what will happen, but I know how hard it is to do this Cup stuff. Jay Robinson gave the owner of this race car, Mark Beard, some advice. He said, ‘Go buy a speedway car and a big motor from (Earnhardt Childress Racing),’ and that’s exactly what he did, and then they called me to come drive it.
“This man has tried six or seven times to make a race, and his first Cup race is the Daytona-freaking-500. I’m so glad to do it for him.”
Sadler, meanwhile, was 36th fastest overall in Tommy Baldwin Racing‘s No. 7 Golden Corral Chevrolet at 188.561 mph, good for second-best among Open teams.
This will be the 41-year-old Sadler’s 14th Daytona 500 start. His best finish was a runner-up showing to Ward Burton in 2002. Baldwin was Burton’s crew chief for the victory.
“It’s a good start for the week,” a grinning Baldwin said. “It allows us to relax the next two or three days and just focus on the 500. We finished eighth in last year’s Daytona 500 and hopefully we just stick to that plan. I’ve got all the notes from that.”
Drivers Reed Sorenson, D.J. Kennington, Corey LaJoie and Timmy Hill are vying for the final two spots in the Daytona 500.