The Daytona 500 Qualifying took place Sunday at Daytona International Speedway. The Qualifying determines the pole and outside pole positions for next week's race, and provides berths for four additional drivers. The Daytona 500 will kick off the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup season.
Vancouver native Greg Biffle earned the outside pole position and will make up the front row with his teammate Carl Edwards, who topped Biffle's time by just one-tenth of a second to claim the pole position in next Sunday's Daytona 500. Although the pole and outside pole positions do not historically significantly improve the chances of winning the race, it makes for nice bragging rights for both Edwards and Biffle. Washington's other driver, Kasey Kahne, missed out on qualifying for either pole position, coming in at No. 25 in the qualifying laps.
The final grid will be determined in the duels later this week.
Here's the full list of how Qualifying finished, but this is not the starting lineup. Non-qualified drivers are in bold.
- Carl Edwards
- Greg Biffle
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Marcos Ambrose
- Casey Mears
- Jeff Gordon
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Trevor Bayne * (clinched berth in Daytona 500)
- Tony Stewart
- Mark Martin
- Jimmie Johnson
- AJ Allmendinger
- Paul Menard
- David Ragan
- Matt Kenseth
- Ryan Newman
- AJ Allmendinger
- Brad Keselowski
- Kevin Harvick
- Joey Logano
- Clint Bowyer
- Jeff Burton
- Juan Pablo Montoya
- Kasey Kahne
- Tony Raines * (clinched berth in Daytona 500)
- David Stremme * (clinched berth in Daytona 500)
- Kyle Busch
- Jamie McMurray
- Danica Patrick
- Kenny Wallace
- Terry Labonte * (guaranteed spot via past champion's provisional)
- Dave Blaney
- Kurt Busch
- Elliott Sadler
- Michael Waltrip
- Joe Nemechek
- Denny Hamlin
- Regan Smith
- Michael McDowell
- Landon Cassill
- David Gilliland
- Bobby Labonte
- Bill Elliott
- Mike Wallace
- David Reutimann
- Robert Richardson Jr.
- Robby Gordon
- JJ Yeley
For more on the Great American Race, check out SB Nation NASCAR's Daytona 500 stream, as well as NASCAR Ranting & Raving.