Saturday's second and final Sprint Cup Series practice session at the
Daytona International Speedway gave the 53 competing teams and drivers a last opportunity to tweak their Bud Pole qualifying set-ups ahead of, what is for many, one of the most important qualifying sessions of the entire year.
With 19 teams on the entry list not guaranteed a place on the 43 car starting grid a good performance in Sunday's evening's qualifying session could make the difference between starting the biggest race of the NASCAR season or watching it on TV. Although Thursday's Gatorade qualifying races offer those drivers one last opportunity to make the field, they are often a complete lottery and every one of the non-guaranteed drivers would like nothing more than to seal their place in the Daytona 500 in single car qualifying.
Patrick Carpentier, second quickest in morning practice, went one better in the afternoon as he put the #10 Gillett-Evernham Motorsports Dodge on top of the pile with a fastest time of 48.348-seconds with Michael Waltrip, another non top 35 driver, second quickest in his #55 NAPA Toyota. Three non guaranteed drivers will secure their place in the ‘500 field on Sunday with the remainder being decided on Thursday and it will be no surprise if at least one non guaranteed driver finds his way onto the front two rows of the ‘500 grid.
Fastest of those drivers who are assured of their place in next Sunday's race was Tony Stewart in third place on the timesheets closely followed by his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin and the Yates Racing Ford of Travis Kvapil.
Sixth fastest was Furniture Row Racing's Joe Nemechek, another driver trying to get into the Daytona 500 on speed with seventh fastest driver David Reutimann also in the same boat. Jeff Gordon was eighth quickest with Brian Vickers ninth in the leading
Red Bull Racing entry and Dale Earnhardt Jr rounding out the top ten for Hendrick Motorsports.
![Tony Stewart - Home Depot Chevrolet [pic credit: image.net]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/300248.jpg)
