The Duel 150s were run today to determine the qualifying order for this Sunday's Daytona 500. But the big story is that Michael Waltrip has qualified for the Daytona 500. It's been a bad week for Waltrip. During Sunday's pre-qualifying inspection, a foreign substance was found in the intake manifold. The car was impounded and it appears the substance may have been some sort of gel that's used in jet fuel. Waltrip was fined and penalized 100 points. Crew chief David Hyder and Michael Waltrip Racing director of competition Bobby Kennedy were ejected from the Daytona 500. Hyder has been fired and replaced by Scott Eggleston. Waltrip apologized and said that an employee did this on his own without management approval. There were also penalties given to the teams of Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler & Scott Riggs. Here's a Fox Sports video explaining their penalties.
But Michael Waltrip was still eligible to qualify for the Daytona 500. But he had to start at the back of the field in a backup car he had never driven. But he knows how to drive at Daytona. Tony Stewart won the first race but Michael Waltrip Racing got great news from this race. All three cars qualified for the Daytona 500. It's very convoluted but Michael Waltrip, Dale Jarrett & David Reutimann are all in the race. Jeff Gordon won the second race but then flunked post qualifying inspection and he will have to start at the back of Sunday's field. Joe Nemechek & Mike Wallace qualified in that race. Sterling Marlin was locked in and let both guys pass him so they could qualify. The other Toyota teams did poorly. Both Red Bull Racing Toyotas, Brian Vickers & AJ Allmendinger, crashed out and Jeremy Mayfield & Mike Skinner of Bill Davis Racing failed to qualify too. David Gilliland & Ricky Rudd are still in the front row for Sunday's Daytona 500.
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