Gordon feels like a loser after this win

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Jeff Gordon thought his victory in the second heat of yesterday's Gatorade Duel 150s earned him the fourth starting spot in the 43-car grid of the 49th Daytona 500. But the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet was disappointed to learn NASCAR officials discovered his car to be too low during postrace inspection and bumped Gordon to the rear of the field, where he will start 42d.

"I'm mad about that right now," Gordon said. "I mean, I think I should start the Daytona 500 Sunday, but where I will start will be the other thing."

Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president for competition who's had quite a busy week doling out point penalties, record fines, suspensions, and ejections, indicated Gordon would not be subject to a further penalty after inspectors found his car was an inch low because of misaligned rear shock bolts and mounts.

"We feel it was unintentional and, actually, fairly unsafe," Pemberton said. "The part failure was unintentionally done and the result was the car was low."

Gordon will make his 15th Daytona 500 start from the worst starting position of his career, three spots removed from the 39th starting spot in the 2004 Daytona 500, when he finished eighth.

"I hate to hear that," said Gordon, who made a daring inside-out, last-lap pass of runner-up Kurt Busch in Turn 3 to capture his fourth career victory in the Duels. "That definitely takes away from [the win]."

Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Chevrolet, experienced no such hiccups in inspection after his victory in the first heat of the Gatorade Duel 150s. Stewart, who staved off runner-up Dale Earnhardt Jr., recorded his second victory in a week after winning Saturday night's Budweiser Shootout. Stewart's 150 win, which earned him the No. 3 starting position in Sunday's 500, was the 100th for Joe Gibbs Racing and the 31st of Stewart's Nextel Cup career. "Obviously, it's an awesome day, and I'd be crazy not to say I'm real excited for Sunday," said Stewart, who is considered a favorite to win his first Daytona 500. "I don't know how you could have a better start to the season than what we've had." . . . James Hylton, the 72-year-old driver from Inman, S.C., who was looking to become the oldest driver ever to qualify for the 500, looked like he was in when he was running eighth with six laps to go. When the green flag dropped on a restart, Hylton's hopes were dashed when he was freight-trained by the draft because of a faulty clutch, forcing him to drop to 22d. He wound up finishing 23d, which was exactly what he finished in his last race here in the 1983 Daytona 500. "I couldn't get off on the restart and that's what beat us," Hylton said. "We had a good enough car to do what we needed to do, but that's racing. We'll have to get them next time." Hylton said he hopes to return to Daytona to qualify for the July 7 Pepsi 400 . . . Three drivers (Joe Nemechek, Mike Wallace, and Michael Waltrip) wound up racing their way into the 500, while four others (Boris Said, Sterling Marlin, rookie David Reutimann, and Johnny Sauter) secured spots based upon their qualifying speed. Of the 18 drivers who went home yesterday, four drove Toyotas (No. 23 Mike Skinner, No. 36 Jeremy Mayfield, No. 83 Brian Vickers, No. 84 A.J. Allmendinger).

Toyota enjoyed one small victory of sorts last night when Jack Sprague won the pole position for tonight's Chevy Silverado HD 250, the season opener of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Sprague, who captured his 30th NCTS career pole, did so with a fast lap of 179.508 miles per hour. This after Sprague mowed the lawn on the backstretch during a practice session yesterday morning, saved his truck, and put it on the pole last night. "I had a little off-road excursion with Todd [ Bodine, the defending NCTS champion], and went about 180 miles an hour through the grass. It wasn't cool, but Todd just didn't know I was there because he was ending his run and he drove me off the track." . . . Carl Edwards on the merger of the Roush Racing Nextel Cup team with Fenway Sports Group into Roush Fenway Racing: "It's going to be amazing, having a championship-caliber group like that come on board. I'm excited, plus I get to go to a baseball game or two, so it should be fun," he said . . . Fred Neergaard, public relations director at New Hampshire International Speedway, suffered a sprained right foot when he was run down from behind by Greg Biffle's unmanned car as Biffle's crew pushed it off pit road and into the garage area following the first Duel 150. Neergaard, who was knocked to the ground, limped to the infield care center and was sent home after being examined. "I'm fine," he reported. "I just have to ice it and elevate it."

Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com.