Kasey Kahne won the second Gatorade Duel qualifying race for the Daytona 500, taking his first-ever victory at Daytona. The Richard Petty Motorsports driver edged Tony Stewart (Stewart Haas) on the final lap, as the former champion took on some bump-drafting help from Earnhardt Ganassi's Juan Pablo Montoya on the outside line. However, that was not enough to beat Kahne's momentum on the inside, giving Ford its first victory with the new FR9 power plant – which it currently does not plan to run in Sunday's Daytona 500.

Stewart finished second and only became a factor in the closing stages of the race, taking the lead with six laps remaining when Brian Vickers (Red Bull) got loose and hit the wall at the exit of Turn 3.

Montoya, who finished third, also led some laps in the early going, determinedly overtaking pole-sitter Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Hendrick), before Penske's Brad Keselowski passed him a few laps later with help from his teammate Kurt Busch. The former champion led the most laps during the race and, in the end, crossed the line right behind Kahne in fourth and ahead of Kahne's RPM teammate Elliott Sadler.

In the second half of the pack, the battle for the two available spots for Sunday's race was even more interesting than the one up front, as Mike Bliss, Casey Mears, Bobby Labonte and Scott Speed alternated positions throughout. In the end, Bliss – who was running his back-up car after crashing his primary one in practice – finished 13th and earned the first spot. Behind him, Speed grabbed the other one, and in doing so allowed Michael Waltrip to get into the race by virtue of his qualifying speed from last Saturday.

Also making the field thanks to their qualifying effort are Bill Elliott, Joe Nemechek and former champion Bobby Labonte.

Front row starter Earnhardt finished 21st in the end, with some damage to the right-rear quarter panel of his car.

Boris Said did not finish the race, but he had a start in the Daytona 500 guaranteed for the first time, thanks to his Latitude 43 team getting the top-35 owner points status from Jamie McMurray's No. 26 car from last year.

Teams will take part in two more practice sessions before Sunday's race.

Pos  Driver                 Car            Laps
 1.  Kasey Kahne        Ford          60
 2.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet   60
 3.  Juan Montoya      Chevrolet   60
 4.  Kurt Busch           Dodge        60
 5.  Elliott Sadler         Ford          60
 6.  Martin Truex Jr.    Toyota       60
 7.  Joey Logano        Toyota        60
 8.  Marcos Ambrose  Toyota       60
 9.  David Reutimann    Toyota     60
10.  Brian Vickers      Toyota     60
11.  Matt Kenseth       Ford       60
12.  Brad Keselowski    Dodge      60
13.  Mike Bliss         Chevrolet  60
14.  Scott Speed        Toyota     60
15.  Paul Menard        Ford       60
16.  Casey Mears        Chevrolet  60
17.  Bobby Labonte      Chevrolet  60
18.  David Gilliland    Toyota     60
19.  Robby Gordon       Toyota     60
20.  Derrike Cope       Dodge      60
21.  Dale Earnhardt Jr  Chevrolet  60
22.  Aric Almirola      Chevrolet  60
23.  Dave Blaney        Toyota     60
24.  Mike Wallace       Dodge      60
25.  Norm Benning       Chevrolet  60
26.  Sam Hornish Jr     Dodge      58
27.  Boris Said         Ford               3