49 teams in town, 43 spots available
DAYTONA BEACH - Who's in and who's out?
The best way to determine this is to wait until the official Daytona 500 lineup is released tonight.
But for those who want to fret or rest easy ahead of time, here's your explanation.
With 49 teams in the garage and 43 spots available, six will make the long trip home early.
About a dozen of those 49 teams are in danger of joining the half-dozen who beat the traffic.
Who's In
Austin Dillon and Martin Truex sealed their starting spots with front-row pole runs Sunday. They'll each start from the pole of their respective 150-mile qualifying race tonight.
Positions 3-32 will be determined in those 'twin' qualifiers. The top-15 finishers from each qualifying race (not including the polesitters, who have front-row reservations for Sunday's 500) will fill spots 3-32.
Who's Next
Positions 33-36 for Sunday will go to drivers with the four fastest qualifying laps from Sunday, who don't finish in the top 15 tonight.
A rookie like Childress Racing's Brian Scott, for instance, is sitting pretty because he posted the 12th best speed Sunday. Michael Annett, with the 18th best speed, also looks pretty safe.
After that
Positions 37-43 will be 'provisional starting spots' and will go to drivers not otherwise in the 500, based on last year's final points standings ('owner' points are used, not driver points).
That 43rd spot is actually reserved for the most recent Cup Series champion who didn't make the field.
This could come into play for three past champs with little or no team-owner points from last year: Kurt Busch (2004 champ), Bobby Labonte (2000) and Terry Labonte (1996).
Race hard
Michael McDowell, Cole Whitt, Dave Blaney and Morgan Shepherd are all down the list in Sunday qualifying and 2013 owner points, and almost certainly need a top-15 finish tonight to get in the field.
Too close for comfort, regarding qualifying and last year's points, are AJ Allmendinger, Parker Kligerman, Alex Bowman, Reed Sorenson, Joe Nemechek, Josh Wise, Ryan Truex, Eric McClure and, yes, 2011 Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne.
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