Valentine’s Day offered no love for those drivers racing in the Gatorade Duels outside the top-35 in Owner Points. Those trying to race their way into the 50th running of the Daytona 500 included three past Daytona 500 champions and an Indianapolis 500 winner.

With only four spots available for thirteen drivers, racing was hard and there were many disappointed teams packing up early.

In the first Gatorade Duel, Kenny Wallace and Brian Vickers bettered the rest of those outside the top-35 and will race in Sunday’s Daytona 500. Wallace brought home his Furniture Row Racing No. 87 Chevrolet in eighth place, while Vickers overcame an early spin to finish just outside the top-10 in eleventh place.

Vickers’ Red Bull Racing teammate AJ Allmendinger finished just two spots behind his teammate, yet was unable make the Daytona 500 for the second year in a row.

Dale Jarrett and John Andretti were able to survive an attrition filled 150-mile qualifier to join Wallace and Vickers in a big sigh of relief.

Jarrett – who will be making his final Daytona 500 start on Sunday – had the majority of the field ready to help him make the race. Michael Waltrip dropped his NAPA Toyota to the rear of the field to pick up Jarrett and pushed the veteran to the front, while blocking any challenges from behind. With his No. 55 and David Reutimann’s No. 00 already locked into the field, Waltrip was ready to do anything to have all three of his Michael Waltrip Racing cars in the field for Sunday’s race.

John Andretti surprised many as he was able to push his No. 34 Makoto Chevrolet to a tenth place finish. After a crash took out Jacques Villeneuve and Stanton Barrett and Patrick Carpentier collected the wall off Turn Two, Andretti made his way to the front passing Reutimann for the last transfer spot. While these four drivers and their teams are able to sleep well tonight, those other nine teams were left with nothing but disappointment.

Perhaps the biggest upset of the day came when the Wood Brothers packed up their trailer and headed home. For the first time in history, the famous No. 21 failed to make the field for the Great American Race. With Kurt Busch dropping out of the first Gatorade Duel with a mechanical issue the Past Champion provisional when to the 2004 champion, forcing Bill Elliott and Dale Jarrett to race their way in.