Franchitti fourth on Nationwide grid

Franchitti qualified on the outside of the second row for the Nationwide Series season-opener, which will be led to the green flag by the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Tony Stewart, who emerged fastest in qualifying.

"It felt really good," Franchitti said about his lap. "That's kind of what we ran in practice. What I'm learning here is that it gets interesting in the draft. That's when the car starts sliding around, whether it be the Sprint Cup car or the Nationwide car they are a handful here at Daytona so I'm just getting used to that."

The Scot crashed out of the Sprint Cup Gatorade Duel on Thursday after being involved in an incident caused by Jacques Villeneuve. He lamented not finishing the race but said that he was just trying to stay out of trouble by running at the back of the field.

"It was very frustrating because our mission all day was to stay out of trouble and learn stuff and we were doing that just fine and got caught up in somebody else's accident," Franchitti said."

"We weren't doing anything wrong. As I say, I was hanging back with guys like Dale Jarrett and trying to learn from them and watch what him and Tony Stewart were doing. That's what I was doing."

Franchitti will be starting from 40th place on the grid on Sunday's Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500.

Pos  Driver                 Make       Speed     Time
 1.  Tony Stewart           Toyota     180.937   49.741
 2.  Clint Bowyer           Chevrolet  180.101   49.972 + 0.231
 3.  Jason Leffler          Toyota     180.047   49.987 + 0.246
 4.  Dario Franchitti       Dodge      179.698   50.084 + 0.343
 5.  Kyle Busch             Toyota     179.695   50.085 + 0.344
 6.  Bryan Clauson          Dodge      179.573   50.119 + 0.378
 7.  Bobby Labonte          Chevrolet  179.551   50.125 + 0.384
 8.  Denny Hamlin           Toyota     179.454   50.152 + 0.411
 9.  Kevin Harvick          Chevrolet  179.419   50.162 + 0.421
10.  Martin Truex Jr        Chevrolet  179.272   50.203 + 0.462
11.  Brian Vickers          Toyota     179.215   50.219 + 0.478
12.  Mark Green             Chevrolet  179.194   50.225 + 0.484
13.  Brad Keselowski        Chevrolet  179.183   50.228 + 0.487
14.  Matt Kenseth           Ford       179.033   50.270 + 0.529
15.  Kasey Kahne            Dodge      179.023   50.273 + 0.532
16.  DJ Kennington          Dodge      179.005   50.278 + 0.537
17.  Stanton Barrett        Chevrolet  178.934   50.298 + 0.557
18.  David Reutimann        Toyota     178.905   50.306 + 0.565
19.  Dale Earnhardt Jr      Chevrolet  178.848   50.322 + 0.581
20.  Jason Keller           Chevrolet  178.795   50.337 + 0.596
21.  Michael McDowell       Toyota     178.699   50.364 + 0.623
22.  Mike Wallace           Toyota     178.589   50.395 + 0.654
23.  Willie Allen           Dodge      178.515   50.416 + 0.675
24.  Dwayne Leik            Chevrolet  178.433   50.439 + 0.698
25.  Greg Biffle            Ford       178.363   50.459 + 0.718
26.  Carl Edwards           Ford       178.292   50.479 + 0.738
27.  Brad Coleman           Ford       178.292   50.479 + 0.738
28.  David Ragan            Ford       178.278   50.483 + 0.742
29.  Scott Wimmer           Chevrolet  178.017   50.557 + 0.816
30.  Steve Wallace          Chevrolet  177.848   50.605 + 0.864
31.  Kelly Bires            Ford       177.757   50.631 + 0.890
32.  Kirk Shelmerdine       Chevrolet  177.543   50.692 + 0.951
33.  Marcos Ambrose         Ford       177.120   50.813 + 1.072
34.  Mike Bliss             Dodge      177.089   50.822 + 1.081
35.  Brad Baker             Ford       177.009   50.845 + 1.104
36.  Eric McClure           Chevrolet  176.668   50.943 + 1.202
37.  Robert Richardson, II  Chevrolet  176.470   50.999 + 1.258
38.  Bobby Hamilton Jr      Ford       176.450   51.006 + 1.265
39.  Cale Gale              Chevrolet  178.225   50.498 + 0.757
40.  Johnny Sauter          Chevrolet  179.609   50.109 + 0.368
41.  David Stremme          Chevrolet  -
42.  David Gilliland        Ford       177.075   50.826 + 1.085
43.  Steve Grissom          Chevrolet  Champion's Provisional