in the 1st duel, jimmie johnson beats kevin harvick across the finish line by .005 ... in the 2nd, kasey kahne makes it to the finish line .014 ahead of tony stewart ... so ended the twin 125 qualifying races at daytona on thursday afternoon ... the first 4 rows at the start of sunday's daytona 500 will feature (1) mark martin (2) dale earnhardt, jr (3) jimmie johnson (4) kasey kahne (5) kevin harvick (6) tony stewart (7) kyle busch (8) juan montoya... impressive

five days earlier, kevin harvick, greg biffle, kasey kahne and jeff gordon battle through a green-white-checkered finish of the annual bud shootout until gordon lifts biffle into teammates kenseth and edwards ... ending the race with kevin harvick the winner

the question i have about tomorrow's season opening daytona 500 is ... can this race possibly live up to expectations after 3 breathtaking finishes in 7 days ... for some reason, the recesses of my mind are suggesting i was asking this same question a year ago tonite ... the answer a year ago was no ... the race could not and did not live up to expectations ... i am hoping the answer this year is different

did you know ... historically, 54.4% of all sprint cup races at daytona are won by a driver who starts in the top 5 ... 79.2% by top 10 starters ... and 91.2% from starts within the top 15

rule change for daytona (and taladega) ... nascar will no longer police bump-drafting at daytona and talladega ... nascar's robin pemberton says "we will put it back in the hands of the drivers and we will say, 'boys, have at it and have a good time"

drivers to watch ... row 14 ... denny hamlin (11) will start 25th, brad kesekowski (12) will start on hamlin's outside in 26th position ... these two have been feuding for 2 years now ... ever since brad made denny look like a girl during a joint post-race presser ... and last year's nationwide series ended with hamlin and keselowski yapping at and banging on each other the final 3 weeks