DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Denny Hamlin drove Toyota into its first Sprint Cup victory lane yesterday, capturing the second Gatorade Duel and earning himself a second-row starting spot for Sunday's Daytona 500.

Hamlin passed Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Tony Stewart on a green-white checkered restart, then used a push from Stewart to outrun Jeff Gordon to the checkered flag.

"I'm very proud," Hamlin said. "I definitely was a big guy that liked the switch over to Toyota. We knew they had a lot of resources that we were not able to do with the 400 or so employees we have at Joe Gibbs Racing. I definitely was a guy that was behind it 100 percent. It's finally starting to pay off."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. kept his winning streak going at Daytona, winning the first duel by holding off Reed Sorenson and Ryan Newman. Four more cars -- Brian Vickers, Kenny Wallace, Dale Jarrett and John Andretti -- raced their way into the Daytona 500 by virtue of their finish in the Duels.

But Hamlin and Stewart holding off Gordon might be an advance showing of what to expect in the 500.

Stewart and Hamlin restarted 1-2 with two laps to go after Patrick Carpentier shredded a tire and brought out a red flag. Stewart switched over to his teammate's radio frequency during the pause in action to pass on some advice.

Stewart knew Jeff Gordon was hovering in third place, and he also knew Gordon's tactic is to hang back at the restart so he can get a run on the leaders and shoot past them. So Stewart told Hamlin to keep an eye on that and try to keep it from happening.

As a result, Stewart held back and didn't accelerate until later in the restart zone.

"I think I was more on the brake there after they threw the green than I was on the throttle making sure Tony and I didn't pull away and he had basically the whole field behind him with a huge run," Hamlin said of Gordon. "I was using the brake to make sure I was attached to his front bumper. . . . If I would have chose to hit Tony there, that would have been a huge opportunity for Jeff to pull down and pass both of us with relative ease."

Instead, Hamlin swung around Stewart, and the 20 car dropped back in the field. Gordon passed Hamlin for the lead temporarily, but Stewart reappeared on Hamlin's bumper and pushed the 11 past the 24 and into the record books.

"Obviously if the caution doesn't come out, we think the outcome might have been different," Stewart said. "The important thing was to keep Joe Gibbs Racing 1-2 no matter what the order was."

Earnhardt is on the verge of being the first person to win three Cup events in Speedweeks, as he has already captured the Budweiser Shootout and one of the 150-mile qualifying races.

He and teammate Jimmie Johnson ran together for part of the race before Johnson dropped back in the field with his front-row starting spot not in danger. Fellow Hendrick Motorsports driver Casey Mears finished fourth in the qualifier.

Racing into the 500 in that race were Wallace and Vickers. Vickers passed Joe Nemechek, who had already locked up a spot, coming out of Turn 4 on the second-to-last lap. That pass put Vickers in the race and meant Boris Said still was not in.

Wallace finished eighth, clinching his first Daytona 500 berth since 2005.

In the second race, three-time Daytona 500 winner Jarrett finished ninth, one spot ahead of Andretti. It's Andretti's first 500 since 2005 as well, and he made it on the strength of a car that had never been to the wind tunnel.

"I wasn't in the race until I came off of Turn 4, but I guess that's all that matters," Andretti said. "I wish I would have put money on me in Vegas, on me making this race. We were definitely not somebody they expected."

Andretti passed David Reutimann to gain his spot in the 500. Reutimann was already locked into the race, but had he finished ahead of Andretti, Said would have transferred into the race.

Jarrett had to race his way in after Kurt Busch claimed the past champion's provisional spot for the 500. Busch took his car to the garage after nine laps because of an electrical problem. He needed the provisional after Busch's points from last year were moved to Sam Hornish Jr.'s team to ensure the rookie would make the first five races.

"When you take away all your points, you put yourself in a position where maybe the racing gods aren't looking the brightest upon you, but we'll get through it," Busch said.