Harvick wins Shootout; Danica happy in debut; Martin on pole & Duel lineups

A  big day at Daytona from Mark Martin winning the pole, Danica Patrick finishing 6th in the ARCA race in her stock-car debut and the Budweiser Shootout ending with Kevin Harvick winning after a multi-car crash. A wild, wild day.

So let's get to it, starting with the Budweiser Shootout

First, here's the finishing order

1. Kevin Harvick

2. Kasey Kahne

3. Jamie McMurray

4. Kyle Busch

5. Denny Hamlin

6. Jeff Gordon

7. Joey Logano

8. Brian Vickers

9. Tony Stewart

10. Juan Pablo Montoya

11. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

12. Jeff Burton

13. Jimmie Johnson

14. Ken Schrader

15. Greg Biffle

16. Matt Kenseth

17. Carl Edwards

18. Bobby Labonte

19. Ryan Newman

20. Mark Martin

21. Michael Waltrip

22. John Andretti

23. Kurt Busch

24. Derrike Cope

So Kevin Harvick wins this race for the second year in a row. He was racing side-by-side at the end with Greg Biffle with a tight pack of cars behind each when Biffle spun. He collected the cars of Kenseth, Martin, Gordon, Newman, Labonte, Schrader and Edwards -- essentially most of the guys running the high line behind Biffle).

Harvick won this race despite having never driven it this week. He was sick and didn't arrive until after practice ended Thursday for the Shootout. By then, his car had been collected in a crash with Clint Bowyer driving it. Jeff Burton got in the backup to run it a few laps. So it wa a true team effort that way.

"I think (the win) is good for our particular group because ... this is a fairly new group from a team standpoint (recall that Harvick's crew went to Casey Mears' team last year and Harvick got Mears' crew last spring,'' Harvick said. "For us all to win together, it kind of gives you that team bonding. It gives you a little bit of swagger in your step that everybody knows that they can win. We got beat down a little bit in the middle last year and we kind of built that up as we got toward the end of the year. There's nothing like slinging Budweiser in Victory Lane.''

Now this was the first race with NASCAR's relaxed rules. Bump drafting was again allowed after being regulated closely at Talladega last fall and drivers had a larger restrictor plate. It made things a bit different on the track.

"With the package tehy have right now, you get stalled out when you get two cars kind of side-by-side,'' McMurray said. "You're just able to get a huge run behnd (those) guys. It's not necessarily because your car is handling better. It's like the cars in the front get stalled out. Tony (Stewart) got a bunch of those (runs) tonight. I think it's just kind of a product of the environment we have right now with the plate and the endplates and the wing.''

Kahne was excited with his runner-up finish and even more so with his car, particularly his horsepower. This is was his first race back in the Ford camp after Richard Petty Motorsports went from Dodge to Ford and got Roush-Yates engines.

"The Roush-Yates engine, the way it comes up through the gears, the way it races, the way you can get pushes and push other car was something that was new to me and I enjoyed it. I thought that was pretty awesome.''

Recall, that the Dodge engines were underpowered compared to other makes on the plate tracks in the past. It was just a matter of finding the right line and holding on for Kahne and those guys. Now he can dictate things. That's what's new for him.

Here's what others said after Saturday night's race:

Carl Edwards asked about what he learned in this race: "My pit crew is really good.'' Recall that the pit crew was s sore spot for the team last year. So, the good start is promising for this group. Edwards also led the first 29 laps and led 42 of the 76 laps run.

Kyle Busch on his car: "We didn't quite have the car we were looking for tonight. I have to apologize to some of our fans. The (car) just didn't quite have enoguh in order to be able to turn on the exit of the corners. I couldn't keep the throttle down the way I wanted. ... On how the race looked from his perspective: "It was out of control - we all just kept it in control These cars aren't that easy to drive we're having a hard time. There's so little room for error at this place and we're just all over

Denny Hamlin on his car: "We fought our car. We didn't have the best pit stop at the end. We came in in a pretty good position, but we were going for four tires and then audibled for two at the end and that kind of slows up your stop.'' As for his left knee with the torn ACL, Hamlin said: "It bothers me more to get to the car than it does actually in it.''

Kurt Busch, who wrecked for second time in three nights, said: "I'm making more laps in the ambulance than I am on the track.'' He was uninjured and was referring to the mandatory visits to the infield care center. He wrecked after Mark Martin hit him. Martin took the blame.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. on his car: "We were not very fast in practice with this car and it was not very strong in the race. We'll try to bring a better chassis to the next Shootout.''

Jeff Gordon, describing what happened with him and Biffle to trigger the accident: "I got to Greg and I was just pushing and pushing and pushing; almost had to move to the inside of him. He kind of closed the door there and I was just pushing. We went into the corner and he just spun right out. I don't know if he had a tire go down (Biffle had complained on the radio before the final restart he thought a tire might be going down) or just the fact that he was on old tires and couldn't take that kind of a push. They said that bump-drafting is OK now so tha's what it's going to take to win the race.

Tony Stewart: "I wouldn't say we had a very strong car, we just got good track position. We had to be in clean air, we got really tight even if we were second in line.''

Also, Kevin Harvick won $202,357 out of a purse of $1,095,439. Recall that NASCAR is cutting purses about 10 percent. Last  year, Harvick collected $200,000 for his win out of a purse of $1,217,154.  The purse was off about 10 percent. So, why did Harvick win more money? Well, many of the positions behind him were paid a little less money.

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OK, on to Danica Patrick

She made her stock-car debut in the ARCA race and placed an eventful sixth. She ran in the pack, spun after contact with another car, got a little time in the top five and did some beating and banging.

She was thrilled with her effort, which leads to the question if she'll decide to make her Nationwide debut next week here at Daytona or delay it until the following week in California. A decision is expected Monday. She said she hadn't decided yet. Crew chief Tony  Eury Jr. said he would vote for her doing it and he admits he and Rick Hendrick told her when she started this journey that making her series debut at Daytona might not be the best thing with so many Cup drivers in the field and her inexperience in these cars. We'll see what happens. Certainly having a strong car allowed her to overcome her spin and score a top-10.

"It was a lot of fun,'' she said of her day. "I bumped from the side. I bumped from the front. I got bumped from the back. I learned a lot. I had so much fun in a race car. I can't wait to do it again.''

As for her incident, here's what she said: "People were kind of checking up and slowing down, so I went to the inside and (Nelson Piquet Jr.) tried to cut over to the inside line and I was there,'' Patrick said. "I can't go below the yellow line (the out-of-bounds mark at the bottom of the track) to pass, so I just held my line and it collected us. I could either back off and give it up and wuss out, or I can keep my foot in it and make him react to me.''

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Qualifying,

Mark Martin won his first Daytona 500 pole with a lap of 191.188 mph, nipping teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., who recorded a lap of 190.913 mph. Both Hendrick Motorsports teams work out of the same shop. Car owner Rick Hendrick wanted those teams to work more closely together. What people admit is that the shop was if there were two separate teams in there instead of one big team. Yes, they did work together on things but it wasn't as close as it could be as seen with Martin finishing second in the points last year while Dale Jr. was a career-worst 25th.

So, this was a good first step. Does it mean all is right with everything over there? Not necessarily, but this is a sign of progress. Let's see what happens at the non-restrictor plate tracks but for now Dale Jr fans enjoy it. I'm sure things will be much better between the teams and that should lead to better results. If nothing else, it was a good result and that's something Dale Jr and his team needed.

Here's the lineups for the two 150-mile qualifying races on Thursday that will set the starting lineup for the Daytona 500. ... Drivers with an -X after their name must finish in the top two among others with an -X by their name to earn a starting spot in the Daytona 500.

DUEL 1 LINEUP

1. Mark Martin

2. Ryan Newman

3. Bill Elliott

4. Jimmie Johnson

5. Clint Bowyer

6. Kyle Busch

7. Jeff Gordon

8. Joe Nemechek

9. Jamie McMurray

10. Michael Waltrip-X

11. David Ragan

12. AJ Allmendinger

13. Carl Edwards

14. Denny Hamlin

15. Kevin Harvick

16. Jeff Burton

17. Regan Smith

18. Greg Biffle

19. Reed Sorenson-X

20. Max Papis-X

21. John Andretti

22. Jeff Fuller-X

23. Robert Richardson

24. Travis Kvapil

25. Terry Cook-X

26. Michael McDowell-X

27. Kirk Shelmerdine-X

DUEL 2

1. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

2. Juan Pablo Montoya

3. Kurt Busch

4. Matt Kenseth

5. Sam Hornish Jr

6. Scott Speed

7. Marcos Ambrose

8. Brad Keselowski

9. Joey Logano

10. Bobby Labonte

11. Tony  Stewart

12. David Reutimann

13. Paul Menard

14. Kasey Kahne

15. Mike Bliss-X

16. Robby Gordon

17. Martin Truex Jr.

18. Brian Vickers

19. Elliott Sadler

20. Casey Mears-X

21. David Gilliland-X

22. Aric Almirola-X

23. Boris Said

24. Dave Blaney-X

25. Derrike Cope-X

26. Mike Wallace-X

27. Norm Benning-X

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