Harvick remained perfect through Speedweeks on Thursday by winning the first of two 150-mile Budweiser Duel qualifying races, and the victory has positioned him as the top pick to win NASCAR’s version of the Super Bowl.

Being labeled the favorite is the last thing the 2007 Daytona 500 winner wanted headed into Sunday’s season-opener.

“We like to be the lame-duck underdog. That’s what we’re shooting for,” Harvick said.

Harvick is a perfect 2 for 2 at Daytona International Speedway. He also won an exhibition race last weekend. This strong start comes at a time when Harvick has found a balance in his life with the addition of son, Keelan, who was born last July, and as he heads into his final season with Richard Childress Racing. Harvick has already decided to move to Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014.

“We’ve been fortunate to win the first two races of Speedweeks. We’ve just got to keep a level head on our shoulders, not get too high over what we’ve done, just do the same things that we’ve done,” he said. “If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. I think we definitely have the car and team to be in contention to do that.”

But nobody is quite sure what the 500 will look like with NASCAR’s new Gen-6 race car. Sunday’s race will go off with a full 43-car field, double the amount of cars that ran in Thursday’s qualifying races. There were 19 cars in last Saturday’s exhibition.

Kyle Busch, winner of the second duel, believes more cars on the track will create a much different race than what fans have seen so far. All three races at Speedweeks to date have lacked much action as drivers continue to learn the new cars and how it reacts in traffic and different aerodynamic situations.

“With more cars out there, we might see it be a little bit different come Sunday,” Busch said. “There were half the field in each race, obviously. There’s going to be twice as many good cars, twice as many middle of the pack cars, twice as many back of the pack cars. If you can get your car handling, driving, feeling good, you’ll be able to be one of the guys that’s up front.”

Is Busch, who was wrecked out of last week’s exhibition just 15 laps into the race, one of those guys?

“I feel that’s where we’re at,” Busch said. “That’s an added bonus for us right now.”

Busch gave Toyota its first victory of Speedweeks and snapped Chevrolet’s dominance. Harvick took the new Chevrolet SS to Victory Lane twice, and Danica Patrick put it on the Daytona 500 pole in time trials.

Busch held off Kasey Kahne, in a Chevrolet, and learned the driver out front is in the strongest position.

“It’s hard to pass the leader,” said Busch. “Stay out front. When you get out front, you can hold everyone off.”

But Kahne, who settled for second, said timing will be critical and nobody is sure just yet what move will be needed to win the Daytona 500.

“I think it’s tough because you don’t know when you get that push. You don’t know when it plays into your time,” said Kahne, who never got close enough to Busch to take a solid shot at the win. “I think you need to be ready at any time to get to the front, to second, to third, try to move up. I don’t think waiting till the last lap is a ticket the way things are right now.”

“I think Kevin looks really good,” he said. “He’s got this place figured out. I think he can be beat, yeah. There’s a few of us in the second race who had really good cars, and I could move around really well, similar to what Harvick did in the first race.”

In the first race, Harvick held off Greg Biffle over a four-lap sprint to win. Harvick and Biffle also went 1-2 in last Saturday night’s exhibition race.

The starting field for the Daytona 500 is set by the results from the pair of 60-lap qualifiers, but Patrick held onto the pole by running a safe race in the first qualifier. The first woman to win a pole at NASCAR’s top level, Patrick earned the top starting spot in time trials last weekend.

She started first in the first qualifier, raced a bit early, then faded back to run a conservative race and ensure she’ll start first in the 500.

“I hate coming to the end like that and just lagging back,” she said. “That’s not fun. But it’s also really ignorant to go drive up into the pack and be part of an accident for absolutely no reason. You’re really not going to learn much there.”

Patrick wound up 17th out of 23 cars.

“What I really feel like I need to do is go down to the Harvick bus and see what he’s doing,” she said. “He’s got it going on down here.”

The first race was dull until Denny Hamlin brought out the only caution with seven laps remaining. Hamlin lost control of his car, spun into Carl Edwards and triggered a four-car accident that also collected Regan Smith and Trevor Bayne, who had a dominant car early in the qualifier.

“I know what the wrecks look like now, I am really familiar with them,” said Edwards, who was wrecked at testing in January and in practice for the exhibition race last week. He was also black-flagged in the exhibition race when his window net fell off.

Hamlin said the accident was a product of drivers trying to learn the nuances of NASCAR’s new Gen-6 car.

“It just shows you that any kind of bad aero position you put yourself in, your car can be vulnerable,” said Hamlin, who was running in the high line when he inched into Edwards’ space down low.

Juan Pablo Montoya, who infamously crashed into a jet dryer during last year’s Daytona 500 to trigger a massive fuel fire, stopped for minor repairs during the caution. Montoya restarted the race in 13th with four laps remaining, but rocketed through the field to finish third.

“It was time to go,” he said. “It’s hard, you don’t want to tear up the car, and at the same time you want to go. The bumpers are a little fragile. You have to be careful with that. You want to have a good car at the end.”

The bulk of both races seemed to be one long parade of the Gen-6 race car. Unsure of how the cars handle in packs, and when the drivers choose to side-draft, most of the field in the first race played it conservatively.

“The choice was obviously made by a bunch of us to run around in circles and just make laps,” said two-time Daytona 500 champion Michael Waltrip, who needed a clean race to guarantee a spot in Sunday’s field. “There were a lot of people that just wanted to get through some laps and understand what was going on. There were some of us that would have run like that until they threw the checkered just to make the race. And then there were some that decided it was time to go, and they made it work.”

Waltrip is racing in a special Sandy Hook Special Support Fund paint scheme, and his car number has been changed to No. 26 as a tribute to the 26 students and teachers killed in the Newtown, Conn., school shooting.

“There’s a lot of people up in Connecticut with a smile on their face right now. I’m real proud to get in the race for them,” Waltrip said.

Austin Dillon, grandson of team owner Richard Childress, finished third in the second qualifying race to put his Richard Childress Racing car in the Daytona 500. It will be the 22-year-old Dillon’s first Daytona 500.

“I’m glad my grandfather can sleep now,” Dillon said. “He was wearing me out before the race.”

Brian Keselowski, older brother of reigning Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski, was the one driver who truly had to race his way into the Daytona 500 in the first qualifier. But he lacked speed early, fell two laps down and missed the race.

Mike Bliss was the driver from the second qualifier trying to make the Daytona 500 field, but finished five laps down and didn’t make the race.

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The spotlight is nothing new. But never has it been this bright before.

Patrick won the Daytona 500 pole Sunday, becoming the first woman to secure the top spot for any race in NASCAR’s premier circuit. It’s by far the biggest achievement of her stock-car career.

“I was brought up to be the fastest driver, not the fastest girl,” she said. “That was instilled in me from very young, from the beginning. Then I feel like thriving in those moments, where the pressure’s on, has also been a help for me. I also feel like I’ve been lucky in my career to be with good teams and have good people around me. I don’t think any of it would have been possible without that.

“For those reasons, I’ve been lucky enough to make history, be the first woman to do many things. I really just hope that I don’t stop doing that. We have a lot more history to make. We are excited to do it.”

Her latest stamp in the history books came with a lap at 196.434 mph around Daytona International Speedway. Patrick went out eighth in the qualifying session, then had to wait about two hours as 37 fellow drivers tried to take her spot.

Only four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon even came close to knocking her off. Gordon was the only other driver who topped 196 mph in qualifying. He locked up the other guaranteed spot in next week’s season-opening Daytona 500.

“It’s great to be a part of history with Danica being on the pole,” said Gordon, who joked that at least he was the fastest guy. “I think we all know how popular she is, what this will do for our sport. Congratulations to her. Proud to be on there with her.”

The rest of the field will be set in duel qualifying races Thursday.

However the lineup unfolds, all drivers will line up behind Patrick’s No. 10 Chevrolet SS.

And she knows her latest achievement will mean more public relations work.

The routine is nothing new for Patrick, who was the first woman to lead laps in the Indianapolis 500. She finished third in 2009, the highest finish in that illustrious race for a woman. And she became the only woman to win an IndyCar race when she did it in Japan in 2008.

Hardly anyone witnessed that victory.

Leading the field to the green flag in NASCAR’s showcase event should be must-watch television.

“That’s a huge accomplishment,” team owner and fellow driver Tony Stewart said. “It’s not like it’s been 15 or 20 years she’s been trying to do this. It’s her second trip to Daytona here in a Cup car. She’s made history in the sport. That’s stuff that we’re proud of being a part of with her. It’s something she should have a huge amount of pride in.

“It’s never been done. There’s only one person that can be the first to do anything. Doesn’t matter how many do it after you do, accomplish that same goal. The first one that does always has that little bit more significance to it because you were the first.”

Even before her fast lap Sunday, Patrick was the talk of Speedweeks. Not only did she open up about her budding romance with fellow Sprint Cup rookie Ricky Stenhouse Jr., but she was considered the front-runner for the pole after leading practice sessions Saturday.

And she didn’t disappoint.

She kept her car at or near the bottom of the famed track and gained ground on the straightaways, showing lots of power from a Hendrick Motorsports engine.

“It’s easy to come down here in your first or second year as a driver and clip the apron trying to run too tight a line or do something and scrub speed off,” Stewart said. “That’s something she did an awesome job. Watching her lap, she runs so smooth. … She did her job behind the wheel, for sure.”

The result surely felt good for Patrick, especially considering the former IndyCar driver has mostly struggled in three NASCAR seasons. Her best finish in 10 Cup races is 17th, and she has one top-five in 58 starts in the second-tier Nationwide Series.

She raced part-time in 2010 and 2011 while still driving a full IndyCar slate. She switched solely to stock cars last season and finished 10th in the Nationwide standings.

She made the jump to Sprint Cup this season and will battle Stenhouse for Rookie of the Year honors.

Starting out front in an unpredictable, 500-mile race doesn’t guarantee any sort of result, but securing the pole will put her in the limelight for at least the rest of the week.

She also won the pole at Daytona for last year’s Nationwide race.

This is considerably bigger.

The previous highest female qualifier in a Cup race was Janet Guthrie. She started ninth at Bristol and Talladega in 1977.

“It’s obviously a history-making event that will last a long, long time,” Guthrie said, praising Patrick’s feat. “It’s a different era, of course. Different times. I can’t imagine what I would do with a spotter or somebody telling me how to drive. It’s rather a different sport now. Back then, there was a much greater difference from the front of the field to the back.”

Guthrie received a lukewarm reception from fellow drivers back then.

Patrick was much more welcomed, undoubtedly because of her background and popularity.

She’s comfortable being in the spotlight, evidenced by her racing career, her television commercials and her sudden openness about her personal life.

“I think when pressure’s on and when the spotlight’s on, I feel like it ultimately ends up becoming some of my better moments and my better races and better results,” Patrick said. “I just understand that if you put the hard work in before you go out there that you can have a little peace and a little peace of mind knowing that you’ve done everything you can and just let it happen.”

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