DAYTONA 500 Stewart, Gordon win Duel qualifying races

Two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip got what he wanted Thursday -- a chance to prove he didn't need to cheat to make the Daytona 500.

Tony Stewart, the favorite to win Sunday's stock-car Super Bowl, won the first of the two 150-mile qualifying races, and four-time series champion Jeff Gordon charged from fourth to first on the final lap to take the second race. It sets up a showdown with Stewart, who has yet to win the 500.

Joe Nemechek and Mike Wallace raced their way into the 500 with finishes of ninth and 11th in the second race. They join Waltrip and Boris Said, who nosed out Mike Bliss, in the first qualifying race.

Kyle Busch led most of the second race but lost the lead to his older brother Kurt, the 2003 series champion, and fell all the way to sixth on the 54th lap. Meanwhile, Gordon, who has three qualifying race wins, hung around the leaders throughout the race but seemed to come out of nowhere for the victory.

He pitted for four tires during a caution period 10 laps from the end, while the eight cars in front of him stayed on track. Gordon was 11th on the restart on Lap 54 and slowly moved back into contention.

Gordon said it took some luck and some drafting help from J.J. Yeley to get to the front on the final trip around the 2.5-mile oval.

"We just showed anything is possible," Gordon said. "I didn't think we had the car to get here [to Victory Lane] today. I know we've got to get our car handling a little better before Sunday.''

Kurt Busch wound up second, followed by David Stremme, Kyle Busch and former series champion Matt Kenseth, who had to race from the rear of the 30-car field after his qualifying speed on Sunday was disqualified by NASCAR in the cheating scandal that involved four other cars.

But it was the role of Waltrip's team in the cheating scandal that had everyone's attention. He guaranteed he would remain the talk of the garage after nearly knocking friend and former teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. out of the opener.

"I'm just sad and happy at the same time," said Waltrip, who hours earlier apologized for his team's role in the cheating mess. "That's what Daytona does to you."

Waltrip charged back to finish eighth, while Junior, whose crew made quick repairs to his car, finished close behind Stewart in second.

Said, who already had secured a guaranteed starting spot in the 43-car field 500 field, nipped former Truck Series champion Bliss in the opener for the second transfer spot into the race.

Because Said raced his way in, that means Waltrip's rookie teammate David Reutimann, who was to race later in the second 150, will be in the 500 based on last Sunday's time trials. Third Waltrip driver Dale Jarrett finished 18th Thursday but was guaranteed a Daytona 500 spot as a former series champion.

Stewart, who won the non-points Budweiser Shootout last Saturday and also has won the last two July Cup races here, added to his credentials as the man to beat Sunday, easily holding off former 500 winner Earnhardt in a two-lap showdown in a race that went three extra laps because of a late caution flag.

"This car has been bad to the bone all week," said Stewart, who is 0-8 in the 500. "Hopefully, we have one more in it. The qualifying races and Shootouts are great. And so are the July races, but I really want this race on Sunday bad."

Jeff Burton finished third in the first race, followed by Daytona pole-winner David Gilliland, 2006 Nextel Cup rookie of the year Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer and Martin Truex Jr., Earnhardt's teammate. Reigning Cup champion Jimmie Johnson never was in contention for the win and finished 11th.

The first race was slowed by six caution flags, while there were only two in the second 150.

For a while, it looked as if James Hylton, the 72-year-old hoping for a comeback at Daytona, would make the field for his first Daytona 500 since 1983 and first Cup race since 1993. After running as high as second by staying on the track when others pitted during a caution period, he got shuffled back on a late restart and faded out of contention.

Hylton said he had a race-long problem with his clutch, hampering his restarts.

"I'm disappointed, yeah, because I was locked in eighth place there, and that's where I needed to be," Hylton said. "And then the daggone caution came out, and I knew I was a dead duck."

Others who failed to make the race included former open-wheel star A.J. Allmendinger, teammate Brian Vickers, two-time Daytona winner Bill Elliott, 2002 Daytona 500 winner Ward Burton and 1990 winner Derrike Cope.

-Nascar -