DAYTONA BEACH — He drove a backup car that hadn’t taken any practice laps. His crew chief mixed up the schedule and showed up uncharacteristically late to the morning drivers meeting. You’d forgive the No. 48 team for being a bit discombobulated going into the Gatorade Duels at Daytona. But they weren’t. Not even a little bit. Four-time defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson won the first 150-mile qualifying race Thursday afternoon by a margin of .005 seconds. Kasey Kahne won the second race, breaking up the Hendrick Motorsports party. The top three qualifiers for the 52nd running of the Daytona 500 will be Hendrick Chevrolets, with Mark Martin starting from the pole, Dale Earnhardt Jr. next to him on the outside pole and Johnson starting third. “I hope it says that we can win the Daytona 500, and to take us seriously,” Johnson said. “I don’t think I’ve been proving myself on [restrictor-plate tracks] since the COT [Car of Tomorrow] has been around. I think things are coming together.” Johnson’s margin of victory over Kevin Harvick was the second-closest finish in a Daytona 500 qualifier since the advent of the electronic timing system in 1993. Kahne’s margin in the second race wasn’t much greater — he edged Tony Stewart by .014 seconds, after Stewart got a push from Juan Pablo Montoya on the outside. “If you beat that guy, you’ve done something on that day,” Kahne said of Stewart. “He always seems to be at the front.” Max Papis and Michael McDowell were the top …
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gotta love mikey