Gordon, Busch win the twin qualifying races

Jeff Gordon celebrates

Four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon is up on the wheel again.

The DuPont driver, who didn't win a race in 2008, held off Tony Stewart and defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson to win the first of two Gatorade qualifying races for Sunday's Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway.

Rookie Joey Logano was fourth in Stewart's former Home Depot Chevrolet and another rookie was fifth, Aric Almirola.

Gordon passed the lead back and forth with Stewart like a hot potato in the last six laps, bringing the crowd to its feet.

It was Stewart's second outing in his new role as owner/driver with Office Depot as primary sponsor.

Jeff Gordon takes the checkered flag

While Gordon won the race and went to Victory Lane, garage insiders were congratulating driver Scott Riggs and his car owner, former crew chief Tommy Baldwin. Riggs drove his independent Toyota to a hard-earned eighth-place finish, assuring him a starting spot in the Great American Race. Stewart and Riggs claimed the two available starting positions set aside for the two highest-finishing teams that did not finish 2008 in the top 35 in NASCAR Sprint Cup owner points.

Kurt Busch drove his Miller Lite Dodge to a sixth-place finish despite a spin early in the race that sent him to the rear of the field. Kasey Kahne was seventh in the No. 9 Budweiser Dodge.

Pole-sitter Martin Truex Jr. led the first lap and Bill Elliott led the second as the field remained bunched like a pod of baitfish. Busch spun out of turn four on the third lap to bring out the caution flag.

Truex regained the lead on the restart and led a four-car breakaway that included Gordon, Riggs and Johnson.

Another caution waved on Lap 24 when Mike Skinner fell off the pace and Bill Elliott's fast Ford lost a transmission. Both cars went behind the wall out of the race.

On the restart, Truex remained out front with Gordon, Stewart, David Ragan, Matt Kenseth, Johnson, Riggs, Jamie McMurray, Paul Menard and Almirola lined up behind him.

Gordon got a push from Stewart and roared past Truex with 20 laps remaining but that wasn't the end of his problems. On Lap 48, Truex, who had dropped to sixth spot, spun in turn two. His spin brought out the caution once again with just 10 laps to go. Four cars, including Stewart and Riggs, pitted for tires and put themselves in the rear of the field for the restart.

McMurray was in front on the restart but another 185-mile-an-hour traffic jam brought out another caution with just seven laps remaining.

The Gordon-Stewart showdown took over from there.

Kyle Busch made it look easy in race 2 with superior Toyota power

Race 2 Recap

Kyle Busch, who we pick to win it all on Sunday using his Toyota power, is for real. The young NASCAR superstar kept his cool, put his Toyota on cruise control and got a shove from teammate Denny Hamlin with just a couple laps left to pass Mark Martin and win the second Gatorade 150 Qualifying Race for Sunday's Daytona 500.

Martin, the 50-year-old ageless phenom, led lots of laps before finishing second ahead of Brian Vickers. If you added the total age of the winner, Busch, and the third-place finisher Vickers, it wouldn't match Martin's racing years but the veteran driver stayed up on the wheel with the young guns in a blazing down-to-the-wire shootout that had a huge crowd cheering wildly at the end.

Juan Pablo Montoya passed Hamlin on the final lap to finish fourth.

Kyle Busch celebrates

Bobby Labonte was sixth in the No. 96 Ask.com Ford, a nice finish for the Hall of Fame Racing single-car team.

Rounding out the top 10 were Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Carl Edwards, Jeremy Mayfield, and AJ Allmendinger.

Earnhardt led laps but fell back when a cut tire forced him to make an unscheduled pit stop.

While it wasn't Earnhardt's afternoon, Mayfield and Allmendinger had to be happy. Both drivers were among those whose only chance to get in the Daytona 500 was to finish ahead of other drivers in the same boat. They did, racing hard all the way.

Mayfield was trying to make it, as did owner Tommy Baldwin and driver Scott Riggs in the first race, as a new single-car team. Mayfield is both owner and driver.

The final four starting spots in The Great American Race went to Bill Elliott, Travis Kvapil, and Regan Smith, as well as former champion Terry Labonte, who received the former champion's provisional.

Elliott, Kvapil and Smith were added to the lineup in the final spots based on their time trial speeds.

Results Race 1

Results Race 2