It came down to the last lap, but Kyle Busch was able to hold off a last-lap charge by Mark Martin and Brian Vickers to earn his first victory in the Gatorade Duel 150.

Coming to the white flag, Busch was out front with teammate Denny Hamlin tucked up behind him. As the leaders made their way off the Turn 2, Mark Martin made his move under Hamlin with a bit of help from Vickers No. 83 Red Bull Toyota. Vickers gave Martin a push going into Turn 3, throwing him into the corner with a full steam of momentum as he looked to make his move for the win.

With Martin charging hard on the outside, Busch drifted up the track to block his move. Vickers seeing his opportunity to take the win dropped to the bottom of the track, forcing Busch to throw another block off Turn 4. The driver of the No. 18 M&M's Toyota was able to use the entire track and hold off the charges to capture his first victory of 2009.

"This whole team has really worked hard. This whole off-season everybody has. From where we ended last year, it felt like it was pretty cool to start off the season this way," Busch told the media following his win. "We ran good at Daytona here last year. Same thing in the Duel race, as well as in the 500. We gave one away in the Duel. Gave one away in the 500. Maybe we can steal them back this year.

"I could have rode the last five laps and pushed Mark Martin to the win," Busch added. "I thought that would be a Cinderella story. You would have something to write about. For us to win today, it was all right. It was good. I'm proud of the effort by Addington and all his boys. For M&M's and Interstate, Toyota, all the guys."

While the lead pack followed leader Mark Martin in a single-file draft for much of the race, the battle around the transfer spot was intense. Lap after lap Jeremy Mayfield, A.J. Allmendinger, Travis Kvapil and Regan Smith battled to determine the final transfer spots for Sunday's Daytona 500. Putting on a great show for the fans, Mayfield and Allmendinger were able to come home 9th and 10th respectively to secure a spot in the show.

"I put the sunglasses on so I didn't show myself crying, I hate when I do that," Allmendinger admitted as he climbed from his No. 44 Valvoline Dodge. "There's so many emotions that run through. I've been so nervous over the last couple days 'cause I've been in this position the last two years, but I really felt like this year I deserved to be in the race, that this team deserved to be in the race."

"I can't believe it," an emotional Mayfield added. "Twenty-three days ago we didn't have a race team, ended up walking in the shop, two hours later we bought a bunch of cars and went racing. We're in it for the long haul, I said I wouldn't ever do this if I couldn't do it for the long haul. I'm just really proud of all the guys."

The first caution of the day flew on Lap 14 when Boris Said and rookie Scott Speed made contact going into Turn 1. After the two made contact, Said's car turned hard into the outside wall ending his shot at making the Daytona 500. Unable to make repairs to the No. 82 Red Bull Toyota, Speed will have to go to a back-up car.

"We were behind Boris Said and he blew a tire and collected us, so we scrapped the wall a bit and messed up something on the car," Speed said after climbing from his wreckage. "We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time - there's nothing we could have done to avoid it - except if we'd been running somewhere else! We just have to brush these incidents off our shoulder and move on to race day. The good news is that we've been so unlucky this week that the Daytona 500 has got to go our way!"

The second caution of the afternoon came when Ryan Newman moved down the track to avoid the slow car of Norm Benning. As Newman cleared the No. 57, David Reutimann pulled up to the rear of the U.S. Army Chevrolet and bumped drafted him down the straightaway. Not yet set from passing Benning, Newman's car shot right, hitting the outside wall head on. With no safer barrier at that spot, the hard contact lifted the rear wheels of the No. 39 off the ground and demolished the front end of the car.

Exiting his car, Newman was clearly unhappy with Reutimann. Leaving the infield care center, Newman added, "Reutimann is a good name for him, because he'll root a man right out of the way."

Unable to race their way into the show, Travis Kvapil and Regan Smith will fall back on their qualifying times to secure a starting spot.

With the Duels now over, the field is finally set for the 51st running of the Daytona 500. Unfortunately thirteen drivers failed to make the show and will be heading home early. For a complete run down of the starting line-up for the Daytona 500 check back to HardcoreRaceFans.com.