by Larry McReynolds

Updated: January 11, 2005, 11:17 AM EST

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Meanwhile new teams like Jason Leffler and the 11 team and John Andretti and the 14 team plus the 4 team and others who have to make the 500 on speed will probably make a fair amount of practice qualifying runs to make sure their car is fast. If you are not locked into the field, putting up a solid speed on qualifying day and backing it up with a good run in the Duel at Daytona are sure-fire ways of getting a Daytona 500 start.

When we get to Fontana, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Bristol — the second through fifth races of the season — it's just a matter of making sure you're one of the eight quickest cars not in the top 35 in points. But Daytona is a different deal. For the most part, the format is not changing. We will have qualifying on the Sunday before the 500, and everybody will log a speed. The only positions that are locked in at that point are the drivers on the front row. The rest of qualifying on Sunday determines the starting positions in the Duel at Daytona on Thursday of that week.

Feb. 20, LIVE from Daytona Ordinal out of range Ordinal out of range NASCAR on FOX schedule More NASCAR

In the past, the Twin 125 results dictated how the field started in the Daytona 500. The top 15 finishers from the Twin 125's — excluding the front row — made up positions two through 30. Then the eight fastest speeds that did not make it through the Twins made up positions 31 through 38. The final five positions were filled by provisionals.

With the top 35 drivers in 2004 owner points locked into the field this year, NASCAR has not determined how many drivers they advance from the Duel races into the Daytona 500. Following the same procedure they used to come up with the Chase for the Championship format, NASCAR is looking at the last 10 or 15 years to make sure they don't paint themselves in a box with the Duel qualifying races (Feb. 17 on FX).

Pole doesn't predict success

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At the end of the day, Daytona is a handling race track. Just because your car is fast doesn't mean you're going to have a good race car for the race. It's one of the reasons only nine Daytona 500 pole-sitters have won the 46 runnings of the Great American Race.

When your car is fast, it means you've got a lot of horsepower, but it also may mean you've got a very low drag car that's slippery through the air. When your drag is down, your downforce is down. There are no free lunches. Low drag means less downforce. More downforce means more drag. At Talladega, you work very hard just to reduce the drag because it isn't a handling track like Daytona. But if you get your car faster in qualifying trim, it's going to be faster in race trim. In addition to driving fast, you've just got to make sure that the car drives well under race conditions.

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FOX race analyst Larry McReynolds has more than 25 years of NASCAR experience as a mechanic, crew chief and broadcaster. He and his fellow Crew Chief Club members take you behind the wall at www.crewchiefclub.com.

"Larry McReynolds: The Big Picture" is on bookstore shelves now, or you may order your own autographed copy from www.DWStore.com.