#88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the pole for the Daytona 500 Sprint Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway with a lap of 186.089 mph for his first Daytona 500 pole and 10th career pole. Earnhardt Jr. is the 36th driver to win the Daytona 500 pole. #24-Gordon will start 2nd, only he and Earnhardt Jr. have secured their exact starting spot. #21-Bayne was 3rd fastest, followed by #27-Menard, #33-Bowyer, #31-Burton, #39-Newman, #5-Martin, #16-Biffle and #14-Stewart. Earnhardt Jr. and Gordon swept the front row for Hendrick Motorsports, the third time HMS has done it. Earnhardt will start from the pole in the first Gatorade Duel and Gordon will start 1st in the 2nd Gatorade Duel. #09-Elliott (17th), #38-Kvapil (20th) and #87-Nemechek (21st) all earned spots in the race as the three fastest drivers among those required to qualify on speed. #32-Terry Labonte will also start the race since he has a past champions provisional to use unless he races his way into one of the two spots available in the Duel he races. With the exception of the front row, the starting lineup will be set by the Gaterade Duel races on Thursday, swcheduled for Thursday, February 17th at 2:00pm/et on SPEED. See the qualifying results on the Daytona 500 Qualifying page(2-13-2011)
