Earnhardt made 11 laps Saturday, his fastest a circuit of 198.592 mph that bettered any other speed posted this week — including Danica Patrick’s pole-winning run six days ago. Although several top drivers including Patrick, Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon sat out the final session, 34 of the 43 drivers in Sunday’s starting field took part.

Prior to Saturday, Earnhardt hadn’t been much of a factor at Daytona. He wasn’t a contender to win The Sprint Unlimited exhibition last week, he posted the 19th-fastest speed in front-row qualifying the next day and placed ninth in the first of Thursday’s 150-mile qualifying Duel races. But Earnhardt participated in every practice at Speedweeks, and showed speed Friday before topping the chart in the final session before the Daytona 500.

“I think we were an average car when we were here early in the week, but we have way higher expectations than average,” Letarte said. “We can’t guarantee success, but we can guarantee no one will outwork us. We took part in every practice. As far as being on track, we were out there with them. You’re not always going to be able to turn over the right stone, but we feel like we have turned over the right ones a couple of times down here, and we have a much better can than we had earlier in the week.”

David Gilliland was second-fastest Saturday, followed by Clint Bowyer, Marcos Ambrose and Aric Almirola. Gilliland is no stranger to solid runs at Daytona, having won a pole here with Yates Racing in 2007 and finishing third in this event two years ago with his current Front Row Motorsports team.

“Hopefully we can get a win here. I feel like we can,” Gilliland said. “I feel like our team is capable of doing it, and obviously it is 500 miles at Daytona, but it is a great feeling going into the race knowing that (car owner) Bob Jenkins and everybody have really put a lot into our program over the winter.”

Kevin Harvick, who won The Sprint Unlimited and the first Duel race on Thursday, made 10 laps in his car Saturday and placed 19th on the sheet. It was a last shakedown for Harvick, who sat out Friday’s two practices. Some others skipped the final session, believing their car was ready enough, and not wanting to risk damaging anything before the main event.

“I think the more accidents you see earlier in the week, the less people want to practice the day before the Daytona 500,” said Gordon, who will start alongside Patrick on the front row. “… We learned a lot in the 150, and we just needed to fine-tune, and we were able to do that yesterday. And so we don’t really have any reason (to go out). If there was something that popped out that we would try to do, we’d be out there today. … The thing is, unless you’re in a big pack, you’re not going to learn a whole lot more. And we don’t want to risk being in a big pack in practice. We’ll do that in the race when it really counts.”

That comes Sunday, in the biggest race of the NASCAR season. And if final practice speeds are any indication, Earnhardt’s car appears to be rounding into shape just in time.

“I think we have a car that can win the Daytona 500. Unfortunately, I think there are 20 guys who can say the same thing,” Letarte said. “What makes the Daytona 500 such a prestigious race is, you’ve got to have a good car, and you have three and a half hours to not make mistake. You have to be very efficient all day long.”

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Yes, he’s in a backup car now, which wasn’t the case two years ago. And the return of pack-style drafting will make it more difficult for him to get to the front from his 33rd-place starting position. But given the speed the No. 21 showed in its Duel race Thursday, and given the confidence Bayne and his team are feeling, it’s far from outlandish to think that his second Sprint Cup victory could come in the same event as his first.

“My confidence, I feel good about it,” Bayne said. “I know that these guys wouldn’t tell me I had another good car if I didn’t. The backup car was really good today right off the truck, so I’m not too concerned about it from a confidence standpoint. I just don’t want to cause more work for my guys.”

Team co-owner Len Wood said the car wrecked on Thursday was the team’s fastest from January testing, but it was a Generation-6 body placed on an older chassis. The backup car is brand new, and according to Wood very close to the one wrecked when Denny Hamlin wobbled down into Carl Edwards in the Duels. Bayne made four laps in the car Thursday to ensure there were no vibrations or other problems, and planned to make a few runs in final practice Saturday to fine-tune splitter placement.

“This one, they say it’s the third best out of the whole Ford fleet,” Bayne said. “Our other one was the first best. I don’t ever want to go backward — obviously our primary is going to be our best car. But if this one is as good, in the pack you’re not going to tell much of a difference. Out front you might see a tiny difference, but there’s not going to be a huge difference in the draft.”

Besides, he and his race team have been here before. Two years ago after Bayne was caught up in a crash on the final lap of his qualifying race, his Wood Brothers crew decided to repair the primary car, because the backup vehicle wasn’t a Roush Fenway chassis. Bayne started 32nd, but used the tandem style of drafting to get to the front.

“Look back two years ago, we were sitting here at this same time of day with the whole left side gone off the race car, and you were wondering if you’d get it back right. And we did,” Wood said. “It worked out that day. So I’d say it’s not a concern. These cars are all built reasonably close.”

As are the parallels between this season and that of 2011. “Very similar,” Bayne said of the run-up to that Daytona 500 and this one. Of course, the big difference is experience — Bayne led 37 laps prior to his crash Thursday, and during that time thought about what it might be like to win at Daytona once more. It was the Duels two years ago where he first emerged as a serious contender, and Thursday he again stood out.

And he again finished with a wrecked race car. But after the adventure of 2011, no wonder Thursday’s accident left the Woods — an organization that’s been around as long as NASCAR itself — unruffled.

“Other than the cost to fix that car, I’ll take what we did,” Len Wood said. “If we’d have run 18th and back and in the pack all day, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. But other than that, and the work it takes to fix it, and the cost — that’s the only down side.”

Which is why there was no panic Friday, despite the few laps Bayne made in the backup car, despite the fact that the Wood Brothers are heading into the Daytona 500 with a new and race-untested vehicle. Bayne was his usual positive self, flipping burgers on a grill outside his motorhome for a sponsor video, his skateboards stacked up nearby.

“Going through it then and overcoming it and making a great weekend out of it — it makes it easy this weekend to go through it,” he said. “I’ve only gotten out two backup cars in my entire career. One was at Phoenix in 2011, and then this one. So it’s a bad feeling. But knowing that we came back from this, from the rear in 2011 and won the race, it gives me a little bit more confidence going into Sunday.”

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