DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. — Jeff Gordon — winless since October 2007 — and Kyle Busch both got the season off to a great start Thursday afternoon at Daytona International Speedway by winning the pair of Gatorade Duel at Daytona 150-mile races. The races set the field for Sunday’s Daytona 500 and by winning, Gordon and Busch will now start 3rd and 4th, respectively.

Two other Indiana natives, Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart, had their races end at the opposite end of the spectrum. Stewart swapped the lead with Gordon twice in the closing laps in dramatic fashion while racing for the first time in his No. 14 self-owned car. That first result? 2nd-place.

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DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. — The sun is out, the heat is on and all systems appear to be a go for today’s Gatorade Duels at Daytona. The pair of qualifying races for Sunday’s Daytona 500 are set to start at 2 PM/EDT on SPEED Channel.

The format for today is simple: two races, 60 laps, and the finishing positions set the grid for Sunday’s race.

The races will be the highlight of the day, which is certainly a good thing after a morning discussion involving FOX Sports’ crew about an animated gopher and his future merchandise got a little interesting in the media room. Simply, FOX is trying to make some unabashed cash off the sales of some t-shirts and the journalists in the room wondered if that blurred the line of journalism ethics for FOX’s crew.

In other words, let’s hope today’s races provide some excitement as expected. See you after the race.