Kahne victorious in second Duel

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 maiden victory with the new FR9 powerplant, 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 polesitter Dale Earnhardt Jr (Hendrick), before Penske's Brad Keselowski passed him a few laps later with help from his team-mate 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 team-mate 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 #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

Daytona 500 line-up:

Pos  Driver                Car
 1.  Mark Martin           Chevrolet
 2.  Dale Earnhardt Jr     Chevrolet
 3.  Jimmie Johnson        Chevrolet
 4.  Kasey Kahne           Ford
 5.  Kevin Harvick         Chevrolet
 6.  Tony Stewart          Chevrolet
 7.  Kyle Busch            Toyota
 8.  Juan Montoya          Chevrolet
 9.  Clint Bowyer          Chevrolet
10.  Kurt Busch            Dodge
11.  Regan Smith           Chevrolet
12.  Elliott Sadler        Ford
13.  Jamie McMurray        Chevrolet
14.  Martin Truex Jr       Toyota
15.  AJ Allmendinger       Ford
16.  Joey Logano           Toyota
17.  Ryan Newman           Chevrolet
18.  Marcos Ambrose        Toyota
19.  David Ragan           Ford
20.  David Reutimann       Toyota
21.  Jeff Gordon           Chevrolet
22.  Brian Vickers         Toyota
23.  Greg Biffle           Ford
24.  Matt Kenseth          Ford
25.  Denny Hamlin          Toyota
26.  Brad Keselowski       Dodge
27.  Carl Edwards          Ford
28.  Mike Bliss            Chevrolet
29.  Michael McDowell      Toyota
30.  Scott Speed           Toyota
31.  Max Papis             Toyota
32.  Paul Menard           Ford
33.  John Andretti         Ford
34.  Robby Gordon          Toyota
35.  Travis Kvapil         Ford
36.  Sam Hornish Jr        Dodge
37.  Robert Richardson Jr  Ford
38.  Boris Said            Ford
39.  Jeff Burton           Chevrolet
40.  Bill Elliott          Ford
41.  Joe Nemechek          Toyota
42.  Bobby Labonte         Chevrolet
43.  Michael Waltrip       Toyota

Did not qualify:

     Casey Mears           Chevrolet
     Todd Bodine           Toyota
     David Gilliland       Toyota
     Terry Cook            Dodge
     Derrike Cope          Dodge
     Aric Almirola         Chevrolet
     Dave Blaney           Toyota
     Reed Sorenson         Toyota
     Mike Wallace          Dodge
     Norm Benning          Chevrolet
     Jeff Fuller           Toyota