Posted on by Zack Albert

Larson uses last-lap shove to win All-American Series feature

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Kyle Larson‘s rapid jump out of the starting blocks to the 2013 racing season isn’t just measured in terms of strong finishes in the top five. It’s calculated by winning percentage.

After a rough-and-tumble race at Daytona International Speedway on Monday night, Larson now sits above the .500 mark on the year.

The Earnhardt Ganassi Racing prodigy bumped aside C.E. Falk III on the final corner of the final lap to win a wreck-filled inaugural UNOH Battle at the Beach for the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series on the backstretch of Daytona’s 2.5-mile track.

By his count, Larson — who will drive a full schedule in the NASCAR Nationwide Series this year — has won five times in eight races this season across several forms of motor sports. Larson finished second in Saturday’s ARCA race at Daytona, wound up first in a midget car event at nearby New Smyrna Speedway on Sunday night before snatching victory on the temporary .4-mile layout on the superspeedway’s backstraight Monday.

"It’s been a great week so far; well, it’s been a great 2013 so far," said Larson, who plans to make the Battle at the Beach a tripleheader; he’ll drive in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and K&N Series races here Tuesday night. "… Busy two weeks, but I’ve been doing it for the past two years and it’s a lot of fun."

For as much fun as the winner’s celebration was, complete with a jump for joy on the roof of his battered No. 98 Chevrolet, it also gave Larson his first smattering of boo-birds from the crowd for how he won.

Larson waged a spirited tussle over the last 10 laps with Falk, who led 61 of the 150 laps. The two swapped the lead twice and exchanged plenty of contact before Larson closed in with the help of lapped traffic on the final circuit.

After Larson doled out one bump in the middle of the final corner, he held his foot in the gas for another with the checkered flag in sight, sending Falk — a regular late model competitor at Langley Speedway in Hampton, Va. — looping toward the infield.

"I knew he was going to try to hit me," said Falk, who was gracious in defeat after some initial frustration and was even jocular in the post-race news conference. "I thought I did a good enough job. He hit me once and I was a little sideways. I thought, ‘All right! I survived that,’ and then I think I got monster-trucked at the end. It just tore my car all to heck, but I made it back, didn’t get torn up too back and can race my car another week. Silver lining there, what little there is."

Larson, for his part, acknowledged that winning with the help of a bumper wasn’t his preferred way to finish first.

"Pretty much anything goes," Larson said. "I did dirty him up there, got into him once and got into him twice and got him turned around. I don’t get to do this short-track racing very often in stock cars. … It seems to me like every video I’ve ever seen at a short track like this coming out of turn four, the second-place guy wins, so I was just going to do what I thought C.E. would’ve done."

Pole-starter Ben Rhodes, who shared the front row with Larson after the two prevailed in 25-lap qualifying heats, slipped past the spinning Falk to take second place at the line, 2.642 seconds behind Larson. As he ran third while sparks flew between the two protagonists in the final stretch, Rhodes — who led the first 87 laps — salivated at the chance to steal a special victory.

"I was thinking ‘wreck, wreck, wreck!’ " Rhodes said, drawing a playful jab from Falk as the two talked to the media. "I didn’t mean it to be against them, but if it was going to fall into my favor, that’s what needed to happen. I was hoping for it and I was trying to put myself back into position, trying to catch back up, but there at the end, we just didn’t have the car."

Falk recovered from the spin to finished third, just ahead of Anthony Anders and Deac McCaskill, who completed the top five.

Lee Pulliam, the defending All-American Series national champion, survived the nine caution periods to take seventh place. He started ninth in the main event after a spin during his qualifying heat.

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Posted on by Zack Albert

The K&N driver will make several Truck starts and finish college

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Ben Kennedy’s path up the NASCAR ladder could have begun with a several-rung head start. Instead, it got going at the ground level, maybe lower.

It’s all made him more familiar than most drivers with the ins and outs of Daytona International Speedway, on and off the track.

One by one, Kennedy rattled off the odd jobs he’d done around the 2.5-mile facility: painting signs, grilling hot dogs, parking cars and cleaning trash cans. He also has experience milling about the grounds in a sewage truck.

Come Tuesday night, he’ll be here wheeling something significantly faster. Not too long after that, he’ll be making his debut in a NASCAR national series.

"It’s going to be really cool that I’ve been around this track for gosh, 21 years now, have been to every Daytona 500, and it’d be cool to actually be on the race track," Kennedy said Thursday at NASCAR Media Day Fueled by Sunoco. "I’ve been around it so much, but I’ve never actually been on it with a race car."

Kennedy, 21, will kick off his third season in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East in the UNOH Battle at the Beach, hoping to qualify for the invitational race on Daytona’s backstretch. The combined event for the east and west tours will feature a gauntlet of heats and potential last-chance races on the .4-mile layout to determine the 34-car field for the feature, which will be aired live on SPEED Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. ET.

Kennedy’s plans beyond this week came into clearer focus Monday morning, when he announced that he’ll drive in at least three NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races for Turner Scott Motorsports this season, starting Aug. 21 at Bristol Motor Speedway. The schedule calls for stops at Iowa Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway with other races as sponsorship allows.

"I had the opportunity to test with Turner Scott Motorsports in December at New Smyrna Speedway and hit it off with the crew and drivers very quickly," Kennedy said in a release. "I’m looking forward to learning from the current series champion James Buescher and greatly appreciate this opportunity."

Before making that leap, he’ll get the chance to race at the track he calls home. Daytona has special meaning for Kennedy, who carries a racing pedigree rich in the roots of stock-car racing. Kennedy is the son of Lesa France Kennedy, CEO of International Speedway Corporation, and grandson of former NASCAR chairman Bill France Jr., but he hasn’t let his family name keep him from paying his dues with dirty work around the track.

"It’s always been sort of the family tradition," Kennedy said. "That’s what my mom did when she was out selling tickets when she was 16. They sort of wanted me to get a feel for everything behind it, which was a great experience, of course."

"It’s always been sort of the family tradition."

— Ben Kennedy on doing odd jobs around Daytona Beach

That background has helped Kennedy become an expert at multitasking, a necessity given his dual objectives this year. As Kennedy marks his third season in the K&N series, he’s also in the midst of his third year at the University of Florida, where he’s a sports management major.

By his best estimate, Kennedy says he’ll likely make five commutes between Gainesville and Daytona Beach — a four-hour round trip — to fulfill both obligations. He won’t miss any classes, having cleared his schedule of Tuesday and Thursday lectures this semester.

"I sort of balance it by doing as much as I can when I’m traveling," Kennedy said. "Of course, when I’m at school, I try to knock everything out and and then when I’m at the race track, try to put 110 percent focus into the car and what I can do better that day."

The focus has helped Kennedy make steady gains in two short years. He went from claiming a single top-10 finish in 2011’s 12-race slate to nine top 10s in 14 races last season, including his first pole. Additionally, Kennedy found a confidence boost in winning a Euro-Racecar event in Tours, France, claiming the first NASCAR-sanctioned oval track race in Europe.

Despite the opportunity with Turner Scott Motorsports and the methodical strides he’s made in racing, Kennedy has managed to temper expectations with a healthy dose of perspective. That’s why he’s continuing to pursue his degree with a goal of graduating in December.

"Of course, racing is definitely very tough to make it to the top especially if you’re talking about the Sprint Cup level," Kennedy said. "Just sort of keeping my doors open and having different options there in case the racing doesn’t work out. I figure, knock it out these four years — I still have a couple more months left (this semester) — and then really start focusing on my racing career. If not, I still have the experience that I had in college."

Two goals with two very different paces. Whichever direction his career arc swings, Kennedy knows he’ll have chills Tuesday driving a race car — and not a sewage truck — on the historic track his great-grandfather built.

"It’s a thrill because I’ve always sat here and am like, ‘Oh, I’m never going to be out there. Not a chance,’" Kennedy said, "and now there’s an actual opportunity."

READ MORE:

READ: Results from Daytona
500 qualifying

WATCH: Tony Stewart on
the Daytona 500

READ: New lasers make
measurements easier

READ: Duels lineup
takes shape

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Posted on by Nascar

Pre-track process goes smoothly at Daytona 500 qualifying

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR’s new laser platform doesn’t tighten the box in which crews work feverishly to find the slightest advantage on a car. It’s just a more accurate way of measuring those things that exist inside the box, said NASCAR Sprint Cup Series director John Darby.

“A lot of the gadgets and trickery we had going on underneath the back ends of the cars — the sideways stuff — will be much, much easier for us to control,” Darby said.

The platform, developed by NASCAR with the help of outside sources, does not provide a scan of the car body. What it does record are items on the underside of each car, logging precise measurements — within 1/1,000th of an inch in some cases — of parts such as front and rear wheel cambers, wheel base and rear axle location.

“The way it does that,” Darby said, “is that as the car rolls up on to the platform, it will identify the car from one of the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chips that was put on it at certification. It will then go through the entire database of all the cars that have been certified … find that car, pull the certification file, look at it and position the car on the platform exactly in the location that it was certified.

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“So if it’s got a frame rail that’s 100/1,000ths crooked or something like that, the laser knows it, compensates for it and repositions the car just as it was certified.”

The machine was not designed specifically to save time — the entire process took approximately three minutes per car as vehicles were scanned Feb. 16 at Daytona International Speedway — although it does combine two of the previous inspection station stops.

Where it excels, Darby said, is that the process erases any doubt by providing more exact measurements.

“Right now we used probably 10 different gauges or pieces of equipment to do the same measurements that the platform does, especially when they are put on at two separate stations. Wheels are turning, cars are getting pushed, you don’t have a guarantee,” he said. “… We felt pretty good about where we were … but this eliminates any questions about that.”

Most team officials say such a piece of equipment wouldn’t be beneficial for individual organizations. There is not as much of a rush to check the measurements as the cars are being constructed, and teams have the ability to send their cars to NASCAR’s Research and Development Center for verification if they choose, according to Hendrick Motorsports’ Doug Duchardt.

“We have a different process to accurately measure cars as we set them up,” Duchardt, Vice President of Development for HMS, said Feb. 17. “So we have invested in our own process, if you will, so we don’t have to do it in two and a half minutes a car.

“We do it in our environment in our shop. So I don’t see that we are going to need to duplicate that. What we work on is making sure we understand the correlations of how we measure our cars in the shop to what happens at the race track. If we are measuring this, do they measure the same?”

As is the case with any piece of equipment or process, a backup system is in place should a problem arise. When just such an issue developed with the laser platform prior to qualifying for the Daytona 500, NASCAR officials were able to revert to measurements taken manually without much hassle or delay.

“It’s days like today that, as a series director, you get more proud of your troops than ever,” Darby said. “They know we’re going to go, one way or the other, and they know there is a group of cars out there that have to be inspected and be inspected accurately and consistently and they never missed a beat.

“It was a little chaotic at first because this was our first fire drill, everybody had to remember their places and their training and everything else. But it was five minutes of getting the gauges out of the trucks, five minutes of setting them up and calibrating them and five minutes of everybody figuring out who was where. It actually went really smooth.”

READ MORE:

READ: Results from Daytona
500 qualifying

WATCH: Tony Stewart on
the Daytona 500

READ: Pole win not
enough for Danica

READ: Duels lineup
takes shape

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Posted on by Staff Report

 

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Posted on by Staff Report

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Danica Patrick has the pole, but these contenders can win the race

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — As Danica Patrick and her race team assembled in front of a banner honoring the pole winner Sunday at Daytona International Speedway, Jeff Gordon stood off to one side trading handshakes and high-fives with his crew members. One of those drivers may be starting first in the Daytona 500, but the other might be the bigger threat to win it.

While Patrick dominated the spotlight by becoming the first woman to capture a pole in NASCAR’s top series — and for the sport’s biggest race, no less — other drivers used Sunday as a stepping-stone toward another, much larger achievement looming one week away. The road to winning the Daytona 500 has begun in earnest, and like a developing photograph, a class of top contenders appears to be taking shape.

There’s Gordon, who has secured a starting spot on the outside front row. There’s Kevin Harvick, who won Saturday night’s season-opening Sprint Unlimited before turning in an unexpectedly slow qualifying lap. There are Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart, fast on Saturday night, and fast again Sunday afternoon. There’s Dale Earnhardt Jr., always dangerous on the sport’s biggest tracks, and perhaps others yet to be revealed

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“I think there are so many cars in this field that are good enough to win,” Gordon said. “I think there are probably 10 or 15 drivers that have the confidence in what they’re doing to separate themselves a little bit from the competition. Maybe it’s just that they’ve won a race on a restrictor-plate track or a Daytona 500, and they kind of understand what it takes. But I’ll be honest with you, after that it’s all about position and making a move in the closing laps that you hope is the right one. And the rest kind of follows.”

It’s not unusual for one driver or team to assert itself as a clear favorite over the first half of Speedweeks, but the presence of the new Generation-6 Sprint Cup car has forced a learning curve that will stretch at least into Thursday’s 150-mile qualifying races — and potentially further than that. As it stands now, the opening few days at Daytona have produced a historic pole run by Patrick, and a swarm of other drivers who could be viewed as the biggest threats to win the Great American Race.

After pole qualifying, Gordon’s name is certainly on that list. The four-time champion’s car was the last one through inspection Sunday, because it slipped off the jack when the No. 24 team was performing maintenance, ripping the right-side rocker panel off the vehicle. Repairs were made in time for Gordon to push Patrick for the pole, but crew chief Alan Gustafson wasn’t ready to pronounce the vehicle a favorite for the Daytona 500.

“No,” he said. “The 150s are really the best time. You start to realize some things in the 150s. Fortunately, we’ve been in this position a few times, having a guaranteed spot. It’s a tough call, to race not to race. At times it can be a burden — if you don’t have anything to lose, you’ll be more aggressive in the 150s and ultimately learn more. We’ve got to be more cautious about that and put some thought as how we’re going to attack Thursday, because I think that’s the only time you’re going to get to understand what your car’s going to behave like in the 500.”

So if there are cars to beat for the Great American Race, the Duels are when they may arise. “It’s really tough to call a favorite for this race,” Gustafson said. “But you will see the players, in my opinion, Thursday. The guys who battle for the win in that race — guys and gals, sorry — those will be the people that you will look to for the Daytona 500.”

Maybe. Stewart wonders if half the field might not be enough for drivers to get the truest indication of what might unfold in the Daytona 500, given the differences in drafting between the new cars and their predecessors.

“As much as we’d like to think it’s Thursday with these cars, I don’t think it’s going to be Thursday like it has been the last couple of years,” he said. “I think it’s going to be transferred to Sunday before you really know.”

Particularly given the expected differences in weather conditions between this weekend and next, which is projected to be much warmer — making the 2.5-mile track that much slicker, and placing a much greater premium on handling. “You’re already starting to hear about handling becoming an issue,” Jeff Burton said. “Well, its going to be a real issue in the 500.”

That’s certainly what Harvick, who posted the 25th-fastest qualifying time Sunday, is expecting. “I think some of the speed in our car is not there because of the weather,” he said. “I think as the week heats up, hopefully that will kind of come to us a little bit more from a handling aspect. But I still don’t think you get the full effect of how the draft is going to work until you get all those cars out there … It’s going to be much different when you get all those cars out there.”

Then again, new car or old, so much of restrictor-plate racing is an unknown. Gordon estimates that in two of his Daytona 500 wins, victory came down to another driver going with him when he decided to make his move at the end.

“You can’t plan, predict or say early in the week — I knew I was going to make that move that was going to win me the Daytona 500,” he said.

Likewise, Kenseth remembers having a miserable Speedweeks in 2009, even changing shocks on his car early in the Daytona 500, but was in the right place at the right time and won the race when rain began to fall.

“You never know whether you’re going to win or not,” he said.

Then again, last year he was among the class of Speedweeks from the start, and was confident he could win the race even before it began.

Now? “For down here, I’m as confident as I’ve ever been,” Kenseth said. “(Saturday) night, I couldn’t have asked any more out of my car. It was really, really fast. I thought it was one of the strongest cars in the field. … Our speed and handling was good. So I’m looking forward to getting back on the track Wednesday and getting back in race conditions on Thursday, and seeing what it’s going to be like during the day.”

Strong words indeed from a two-time winner of this race. But if there’s a clear favorite for the Daytona 500, that driver has yet to rise above a crowded field of top contenders. And then there’s Patrick, who has been flat-out fast on the 2.5-mile oval since January testing. And then there’s always the chance for an out-of-the-blue winner, like Trevor Bayne two years ago.

This is Daytona, after all.

“The great things about these races is, you can have the fastest car and not even come close to winning, and you can have the slowest car and win the race,” Harvick said. “So we just feel like anytime we come here or Talladega, you can put yourself in a position to win.”

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Posted on by Holly Cain

Despite weight of history, NASCAR’s first lady in good spot entering Daytona 500

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Historic feats are becoming just another day at the office for 30-year-old Danica Patrick. And her offices tend to be some of the largest venues in sports.

On Sunday, Patrick became the first woman in history to win the pole position for NASCAR’s biggest race, guaranteeing her a spot in the upcoming Daytona 500.

In 2005, Patrick was the first woman to lead laps in the Indianapolis 500, and her 2009 third-place finish in open-wheel’s biggest race is still the high mark for a woman. She is the only woman to win a major open-wheel race, taking the trophy at IndyCar’s race in Motegi, Japan in 2008.

A year ago Patrick won the pole position for the Nationwide Series, the first time a woman had started first in a NASCAR-sanctioned race here.

Patrick’s effort Sunday gives her another entry in racing’s history books, but more immediately the headlines, spotlight and worldwide attention with a full week of hype about the sport’s most coveted pole position leading up to NASCAR’s Great American Race.

“I think when pressure’s on, when the spotlight is on, I do feel it ultimately ends up becoming my better moments, my better races, better results and I don’t know why that is,” Patrick said.

“I just understand that if you put the hard work before you go out there, that you can have a little bit of peace of mind knowing you’ve done everything you can and just let it happen.

“First and foremost, I grew up with good values and good goals,” said Patrick, who is the first Rookie of the Year candidate to win the Daytona 500 pole since Jimmie Johnson in 2002.

“I was brought up to be the fastest driver not the fastest girl and that was instilled in me very young, from the beginning.

“Then I feel like thriving in those moments when the pressure is on has been a help for me. I’ve also been lucky in my career to be with good teams and have good people around me.

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“For those reasons I’ve been lucky enough to make history, be the first woman to do many things. I really just hope I don’t stop doing that. We have a lot more history to make.”

The significance of the day was not lost on three-time Daytona 500 winner Jeff Gordon, who will start alongside Patrick on the front row and missed the pole position by only a few hundredths of a second.

Trevor Bayne, the 2011 Daytona 500 winner, was third fastest, followed by Patrick’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Ryan Newman and owner/driver Tony Stewart.

“It’s great to be a part of history,” Gordon said. “I can say I’m the fastest guy today.

“She comes into this with racing background, with tremendous amount of exposure and momentum and just popularity that we’ve never seen before, especially for a female driver. So for her to follow that up and start the season off with a pole that’s especially impressive.”

Then he added with a grin, “I’m glad I didn’t win the pole; that would have messed that story up. I’m proud to be on the front row side-by-side with Danica.”

And for all the excitement, Patrick’s result Sunday was hardly a surprise. Her No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet SS was fastest in practice this week and among the quickest during a test last month at Daytona International Speedway.

In the moments after she climbed out of her car following qualifying she was quick to credit her Stewart-Haas Racing team for its preparation in an especially busy off-season complicated by developing and building NASCAR’s new Generation-6 race cars.

Initially, it was hard to tell if Patrick was more relieved or joyful despite the fact she ran the third quickest qualifying lap since NASCAR mandated restrictor plates on its two super speedways in 1988.

“I’m proud of all the hard work that goes into the pole car,” she said. 
“It’s not just turning left; it’s all the attention to detail they put in during the winter. And this just speaks volumes about Stewart-Haas Racing.”

Patrick’s crew chief Tony Gibson — who was on the Daytona 500-winning crews of Gordon (1999) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2004) — said he considered this one of the proudest moments of his career. And he was quick to praise Patrick, reminding people the car didn’t drive itself.

“I’m proud of her to carry that weight on her shoulders and she didn’t falter,” Gibson said.

After making headlines earlier this week discussing her romantic relationship with fellow Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year candidate Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Patrick has once again earned attention for her on-track work.

When asked if the couple made a fun “side bet” on who would qualify best, Stenhouse joked, “I don’t make bets I don’t think I can win.”

Good thing as he will start 12th.

Patrick’s team owner Tony Stewart told reporters, “I think Danica actually has two boyfriends. She has Ricky (Stenhouse) and she has Tony Gibson. They are almost holding hands in the shop when they’re there every day together.

“It’s good for me to see as an owner. I like to see that chemistry.”

Racing trailblazer Janet Guthrie held the previous best start for a woman in the 1980 Daytona 500 with an 18th place qualifying run. Her 11th-place finish in that race is still the best ever for a woman. Her pair of ninth-place starts (in 1977 at Talladega, Ala. and Bristol, Tenn.) is the best for a woman in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series.

“Fabulous, a great day for women in sports, for NASCAR, for Tony Stewart, and for Danica,” said Lyn St. James, who competed in three Indy 500s and was the first woman to win Indy’s Rookie of the Race award (1994).

“It’s a reminder to everyone, not just in racing, that women are capable when talent, determination, preparation, and opportunity collide.

“It will also be very exciting and interesting to see how she runs in the 500. Could be another milestone. It will be interesting how the media and other competitors react to this all week.”

Patrick joked during her winner’s press conference that she had previously planned to take Monday and Tuesday off before the next scheduled on-track activity on Wednesday at Daytona.

But that’s not likely considering the weight of her achievement and the interest it has generated. All things she is well aware of — and happy to oblige.

“This is a pretty big stage,” Patrick said. “There’s a lot of people that benefit from this and a lot of people see it. I feel like a lot of people win (with this) as far as the team, Tony (Stewart), GoDaddy, Hendrick (Motorsports, which supplies her team’s engines) and Chevy.”

It is certainly a good payoff for a long day of anticipation and nerves.

Patrick went out eighth of 45 cars that made qualifying laps on Sunday meaning she had to wait nearly two hours before finding out if her fast speed held.

And for much of the afternoon she and her Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Newman and Stewart were 1-2-3.

“They make me look smart, but I’m not,” Stewart joked. “I could not be more proud of what our guys did during the offseason. They worked really really hard a lot of really late nights.”

As for his driver, Stewart cautioned the loudest Danica naysayers and issued a vote of confidence.

“I believe in her, the team believes in her, our organization believes in her,” Stewart said. “We’re going to do everything we can to make her as consistent and fast every week. The thing I caution everybody is, everybody puts high expectations (on her). Since she’s got here (to NASCAR), everybody has put her under such as strong microscope.

“Nobody said, Tony Stewart is going to be a top-15 car every week the first or second year. Nobody cared. But everybody is so focused on what she’s going to do. You just strictly have to wait and see. It’s still a rookie year for her.

“But we feel like she’s got the tools and mindset to go out and do a good job each week.”

And so the star in her sponsor GoDaddy.com’s commercials during football’s Super Bowl, Patrick finds herself the center of the action in NASCAR’s Super Bowl.

“Today was a cool day,” Patrick said. “I’ve been lucky enough and very blessed in my career to have had a lot of really, really cool days. A lot of things that in a really long time, I can reflect on and be very grateful.”

READ MORE:

READ: Results from Daytona
500 qualifying

WATCH: Tony Stewart on
the Daytona 500

READ: New lasers make
measurements easier

READ: Duels lineup
takes shape

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Posted on by Holly Cain

Danica thinking big after blazing practice speeds

Daytona 500 Coors Light Pole Qualifying Order

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Danica Patrick broke into a huge grin when asked if her blazing, chart-topping speed in practice for the Daytona 500 pole qualifying made her the odds-on favorite to win one of NASCAR’s biggest prizes.

Everyone else sure considered her effort in Saturday’s season-opening NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice at Daytona International Speedway to be a strong statement for Sunday’s Daytona 500 pole qualifying.

Patrick’s fast lap of 196.220 mph in the No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet came during single car runs in the second practice. The car was so good, the Rookie of the Year candidate only made four laps on the day.

PRACTICE SPEEDS: See the full list

"I don’t give much credit to myself for driving and turning left; it’s very much about the car and the engine."

— Danica Patrick

“I suppose being the fastest going into qualifying is as good as you can hope for, but I also understand that it’s a whole other day,’’ an obviously pleased Patrick told reporters at the conclusion of practice. “But we could go out there on the track and for some reason not have as much speed as we hoped for. We could be in an unfortunate situation (Sunday) with wind or weather temperatures or clouds. I understand that, but we’ve done everything we can to prepare for it.”

It almost sounded as if Patrick was just preparing for any eventuality — hedging her bets — because she is a legitimate favorite for NASCAR’s most celebrated pole position. And the team’s performance Saturday was hardly a surprise. She was among the fastest during a winter test session at Daytona International Speedway in January and was third fastest in Saturday’s morning session.

Her Stewart-Haas Racing team owner, Tony Stewart, was second fastest Saturday, albeit a full 8/10ths of a second slower than Patrick. Toyota’s Kyle Busch had the third fastest lap with the Chevrolets of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jamie McMurray rounding out the top five in single car runs.

This was a different car than Patrick drove in testing, boosting her confidence even more. She was quick to point out her team’s preparation and the obvious homework by the Hendrick engine department that powered five of Saturday’s fastest nine cars.

“This car was good in the wind tunnel and you always hope the numbers in the wind tunnel translate to speed on track and it did,’’ Patrick said. “I guess that’s kind of the way it’s gone here in Daytona for us. Everything we think is going to work a certain way is working the way we expect it to and that’s not always the case.

“So everything seems to be going really, really smoothly.”

Patrick became NASCAR’s first female pole-winner at Daytona last year when she earned the pole in the season-opening NASCAR Nationwide Series race. If she tops qualifying Sunday, she would be the first Rookie of the Year candidate to win a Daytona 500 pole since Jimmie Johnson in 2002.

Perhaps as importantly for Patrick, securing a front-row start would take the pressure off in competing in the Feb. 21 Duel at Daytona qualifying races that set the rest of the 500 field.

“It would be really nice, it’s a very big pole out of all of them during the year for attention and especially for GoDaddy. … That’s who that helps the most,’’ Patrick said. “There are other races throughout the year that as a driver you feel more proud of yourself to get, but this is a whole team effort. I don’t give much credit to myself for driving and turning left; it’s very much about the car and the engine.

“The pole at Daytona is very much a team goal. I think being fastest on the chart, being fast in general just shows everybody else how serious (crew chief) Tony Gibson is with his guys and he wants to get me a pole and do absolutely everything he can.”

Pole qualifying will take place Sunday at 1:05 p.m. ET and will set the front row for the Feb. 24 Daytona 500.


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Find out where your favorite drivers will start in Thursday’s Duels at 2 p.m. ET on SPEED at Daytona International Speedway. 

Daytona Duel #1 Lineup

Pos Car Driver Team
1 10 Danica Patrick # GoDaddy Chevrolet
2 21 Trevor Bayne(i) Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Ford
3 14 Tony Stewart Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet
4 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Express Toyota
5 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford
6 88 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. National Guard Chevrolet
7 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Target Chevrolet
8 13 Casey Mears GEICO Ford
9 99 Carl Edwards Fastenal Ford
10 56 Martin Truex, Jr. NAPA Auto Parts Toyota
11 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe’s Chevrolet
12 2 Brad Keselowski Miller Lite Ford
13 29 Kevin Harvick Budweiser Chevrolet
14 16 Greg Biffle 3M Ford
15 38 David Gilliland Love’s Travel Stops Ford
16 26 Michael Waltrip Sandy Hook School Support Fund Toyota
17 78 Kurt Busch Furniture Row Chevrolet
18 95 Scott Speed Leavine Family Racing Ford
19 51 Regan Smith(i) Guy Roofing Chevrolet
20 47 Bobby Labonte Kroger Toyota
21 83 David Reutimann Burger King/Dr. Pepper Toyota
22 87 Joe Nemechek(i) Florida DOT/D.A.B. Constructors Toyota
22 52 Brian Keselowski TruckerFan.com Toyota

Daytona Duel #2 Lineup

Pos Car Driver Team
1 24 Jeff Gordon Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet
2 39 Ryan Newman Quicken Loans Chevrolet
3 5 Kasey Kahne Farmers Insurance Chevrolet
4 18 Kyle Busch M&M’s Toyota
5 20 Matt Kenseth Dollar General Toyota
6 17 Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. # Best Buy Ford
7 27 Paul Menard Menards/Peak Chevrolet
8 33 Austin Dillon(i) Honey Nut Cheerios Chevrolet
9 15 Clint Bowyer 5-hour Energy Toyota
10 31 Jeff Burton Caterpillar Chevrolet
11 1 Jamie McMurray McDonald’s Chevrolet
12 9 Marcos Ambrose Stanley Ford
13 43 Aric Almirola Smithfield Ford
14 55 Mark Martin Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota
15 34 David Ragan Detail Doctor Ford
16 35 Josh Wise MDS Transport Ford
17 98 Michael McDowell K-Love/Curb Records Ford
18 32 Terry Labonte C&J Energy Services Ford
19 7 Dave Blaney Florida Lottery Chevrolet
20 36 JJ Yeley Golden Corral Chevrolet
21 93 Travis Kvapil Burger King/Dr. Pepper Toyota
22 19 Mike Bliss(i) G-Oil/Plinker Tactical Toyota