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Flying colors Five rookies pass season's first test by making Daytona fieldPosted: Thursday February 13, 2003 6:53 PMUpdated: Thursday February 13, 2003 8:10 PM
By Denise N. Maloof, SI.com DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- It wasn't exactly graduation, but Thursday's Gatorade Twin 125-mile qualifying races at Daytona International Speedway certainly felt like a rite of passage for six Winston Cup rookies. "The Cup guys just seem to be so much more aggressive than the guys in the Busch Series," said Jamie McMurray, the top rookie starter in Sunday's 45th annual Daytona 500. "It was getting pretty wild out there," Larry Foyt added. "I was caught in the middle a few times and felt like a ping-pong ball, bouncing back and forth off guys." Those were just two revelations. For a bunch of younger guys getting their first taste of SpeedWeeks race action, there were more reality checks. The quick synopsis: Five of the six rookies will race in Sunday's Daytona 500. McMurray starts 19th after finishing 10th in the first 125-miler. Behind him will be Jack Sprague, who starts 26th after a 13th-place finish in the second race. Greg Biffle starts 27th after finishing 14th in the first race. McMurray's teammate, Casey Mears, finished 15th in the first race and starts 29th. The rookie caboose will be Tony Raines, who finished 17th in the second race. He'll start 34th. "It feels like the weight of the world's off my shoulders," Sprague said. "That's all we wanted to do was get in the thing." For the one driver who didn't, it was teeth-gritting time. Foyt, who raced comfortably for two-thirds of Thursday's first 125-miler, ran out of gas near the end and finished 22nd. That wasn't enough to secure a starting spot. Prior to Thursday, the only two drivers guaranteed Daytona 500 slots were Jeff Green, who captured the pole, and Dale Earnhardt Jr., the outside pole winner. Minus those two, the top 14 finishers in each qualifying race automatically earned a 500 berth. Once the top 30 spots were filled, positions 31-36 were based on Monday's fastest times -- minus those of Green, Earnhardt, and the 28 drivers who raced themselves into the field. The final seven positions were awarded on last year's car owner points. All of that meant Foyt was out of luck. He finished 33rd in Monday's qualifying session, too slow to claim one of the 31-36 positions. His father, A.J., didn't have enough car-owner provisional points to squeak him in, either. "It didn't give me any warning, really," the younger Foyt said of the gas gaffe. "I was just coming off of [Turn] 4, and it fluttered and died on me. So it's frustrating." For Biffle, who struggled horribly during January testing, the key was accepting help. He and crew chief Randy Goss borrowed a car from Roush Racing teammate Matt Kenseth, and Thursday's accomplishment was the result. "The relief was when the 17 [Kenseth] gave us one of their cars to bring back," Biffle said of making the Daytona field. "I really appreciate their help and effort by giving us a car. That's what got us into the 500." Even though the two Chip Ganassi Racing rookies felt secure after posting decent speeds on Monday, they were happier to earn their way. "It's just a completely different group of guys to race with," said McMurray, who qualified 11th Monday, the top rookie speed. "You learn a little bit." McMurray already has some advantage. He ran in six races at the end of 2002 in relief of the injured Sterling Marlin, but using the two-time Daytona 500 winner's setup in Thursday's 125-miler didn't work. "It just wasn't what we needed," McMurray said. "We'll work at it the next couple of practices and hopefully have it working right on Sunday." Mears, who finished 21st as a Busch Series rookie last season, also fought an ill-handling car. Adjustments on the lone pit stop of the first 125-miler helped him nail down the race's final automatic Daytona 500 spot. "Actually, they were a lot cleaner than the Busch guys were here in the 300 last year," Mears said of his first Cup race. "I feel a lot safer running around a lot of these guys just because they're a lot more experienced." "Jamie was locked in on speed, and Casey was pretty much a lock-in on speed as well as provisional," said Tony Glover, Marlin's team manager. "I wasn't extremely worried, but anything can happen in the 125s." That's what concerned Sprague, a Craftsman Truck Series veteran. He's driving for Haas Motorsports in conjunction with Hendrick Motorsports, and even six previous Cup starts -- three at the end of 2002 -- didn't provide much comfort at Daytona. "These guys cut you a lot less slack," said Sprague, who had been involved in a five-car incident during Tuesday's lone practice. "I figured that out a few days ago." Sprague finished one spot better than he started (14th) and avoided the Kurt Busch-Kevin Harvick collision on pit road on lap 30. "That's probably where I made most of my ground was braking to get in the pits," said Sprague, who added that his only goal for Sunday is to "just finish. That's all." It's more than Foyt will do. "Just pretty disappointed," he said. "Because we were up there, and it looked like everything was going our way, and then just to have something like that happen just kills you."
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