Gordon wins Duel 2 on last lap

Gordon won after putting a last-lap move on Kurt Busch, having stayed in the lead group for most of the race and pitting for tyres in the last caution period while most of his rivals chose to stay out.

The race started with David Stremme leading the first lap from Ricky Rudd as Juan Pablo Montoya slipped down to sixth. It looked like nobody wanted to work with the Colombian driver as two lines of cars overtook him on each side of his Dodge.

However Montoya quickly found his place in the draft and on lap six he got a run on his Ganassi teammate Stremme, passing him on the inside into Turn 1 to claim the lead for the first time as a Nextel Cup driver, in only his second race in the series.

Montoya's speed allowed a group of seven cars to steadily break away from the pack with one lining up behind the other in a single line while lapping within the 186 mph bracket.

The race looked pretty straightforward for a while as Montoya comfortably led for 18 laps. But before getting to the first pitstops, the Colombian lost speed and was easily overtaken by Kyle Busch.

As he continued to lose momentum, smoke started coming out of the right rear of Montoya's car. He then brushed the wall, causing further damage to the right-hand side of his Dodge, which forced him to pit and then retire from the race.

Kyle Busch remained on the lead as the race restarted, followed by brother Kurt, Matt Kenseth and Gordon.

The race carried on without major action until eleven laps to go, when the Red Bull car of Brian Vickers crashed into the wall with an apparent mechanical failure on the right rear of his Toyota.

This left the new Red Bull team out of the 43-car field that will race the Daytona 500 on Sunday.

As the race went under caution, twelve cars pitted, including Gordon. On the restart, Kurt Busch led from Kenseth and and Ryan Newman, while Gordon made his way from the back of the pack on new tyres.

The three-time Daytona 500 champion quickly made it into the lead group and got a big push from Stremme to overtake Kenseth on the final lap of the race.

Gordon carried on with the momentum while switching from the outside to run low and take the lead from Kurt Busch to claim his third ever win in a Gatorade Duel.

Three drivers who needed a good result to make the field and finally did it were Mike Wallace, Joe Nemechek and former Daytona 500 champion Sterling Marlin.

David Reutimann had already secured his place in the field even before the race started due to the results from the first race.

The Daytona 500 takes place on Sunday at 3:15 pm US Eastern time (8:15 pm GMT).

Gatorade Duel 2

Pos  Driver            Make        Laps
 1.  Jeff Gordon       Chevrolet   60
 2.  Kurt Busch        Dodge       60
 3.  David Stremme     Dodge       60
 4.  Kyle Busch        Chevrolet   60
 5.  Matt Kenseth      Ford        60
 6.  JJ Yeley          Chevrolet   60
 7.  Carl Edwards      Ford        60
 8.  Ryan Newman       Dodge       60
 9.  Joe Nemechek      Chevrolet   60
10.  Tony Raines       Chevrolet   60
11.  Mike Wallace      Chevrolet   60
12.  Sterling Marlin   Chevrolet   60
13.  Jamie McMurray    Ford        60
14.  Mark Martin       Chevrolet   60
15.  Paul Menard       Chevrolet   60
16.  Kasey Kahne       Dodge       60
17.  Kevin Lepage      Dodge       60
18.  Derrike Cope      Dodge       60
19.  Regan Smith       Chevrolet   60
20.  Frank Kimmel      Ford        60
21.  Elliott Sadler    Dodge       60
22.  Ricky Rudd        Ford        60
23.  Eric McClure      Chevrolet   60
24.  Kirk Shelmerdine  Chevrolet   60
25.  Scott Riggs       Dodge       59
26.  Brian Vickers     Toyota      49
27.  Mike Skinner      Toyota      35
28.  David Reutimann   Toyota      33
29.  Kevin Harvick     Chevrolet   26
30.  Juan Montoya      Dodge       24