Dual 1
In the first of Thursday’s twin 150-mile Gatorade Duel qualifying races for the 2009 Daytona 500, Jeff Gordon and his brightly colored #24 Rainbow Warrior Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet beat back the advances of Chevrolet’s Tony Stewart and Toyota rookie Joey Logano to win the all-so-important races that set the field for Sunday’s 500. The win was especially sweet for the native Californian as, mercifully, it ended his 41-race winless streak.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to visit victory lane quite a few times, but not many times as a father,” said Gordon, holding toddler Ella in his arms in Victory Lane. “There’s nothing more special than that. This team has been unbelievable. We all know what we went through last year by not winning. There’s a lot of expectations on this team, but they never wavered. The guys just kept working hard, building great racecars. I hope there’s a lot of this in store for us in 2009.”

Tony Stewart, in his new #14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet, fought Gordon to the bitter end, coming up a car length short on at the finish line striped across the 3,800-foot frontstretch. Joe Gibbs Racing rookie Joey Logano, who ironically is driving the same orange and white #20 Home Depot car Stewart made so very famous throughout his career before leaving to start his own race team, was impressive in earning third.

Logano surged into the top five late in the race and ended up third in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Placed sixth through tenth were Penske Racing’s Kurt Busch, Richard Petty Motorsports’ Kasey Kahne, Scott Riggs, Yates Racing’s Paul Menard and Roush Fenway Racing’s Jamie McMurray.

Duel 2
Atoning for his off-song 10-race performance in the 2008 NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch came storming back in the second duel to win the 75-lap race handsomely over Hendrick Motorsports’ wheelman Mark Martin and the #83 Toyota of Brian Vickers. Making Busch’s victory even more impressive was that he had to brawl his way to the front late in the race, using an aero-push from Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin to zap Martins at the bitter end.

“I knew the first opportunity that we had to make the move that we ought to just take it and go for it and try to hold them off from there,” said Busch. “It turned out to be all right, it was the winning move.”

Smelling blood, on the last lap around the 2.5-mile superspeedway, Martin and Vickers teamed up to shove Hamlin aside and power down on Busch. Vickers gave Martin swapped paint and bent metal for second, with Martin getting the better of the duel. Earnhardt Ganassi Racing’s Juan Pablo Montoya placed a fine fourth, while Hamlin settled for fifth. Sixth through 10th on the tall Daytona scoring pylon were Hall of Fame Racing’s Bobby Labonte, Hendrick’s Dale Earnhardt Jr., Roush Fenway Racing’s Carl Edwards, Mayfield and Allmendinger.

By Eric Johnson