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Here's a running thread for all things Daytona 500 qualifying ? from Saturday's practice session to Thursday's Gatorade Duels.

Unlike every other NASCAR race this season, the qualifying order for the Daytona 500 was not set by the first practice speeds but rather a random draw.

The lottery balls chose Paul Menard and Jamie McMurray to lead off today?s qualifying session (1 p.m. EST, FOX) ? which determines the pole position and outside pole position for next Sunday?s 500 ? and for David Stremme and Michael McDowell to wrap things up.

Drivers with top 35 owner points will still qualify first (as usual), followed by the drivers who don?t have guaranteed starting spots. That?s where the real drama is today, because three of those drivers (plus a past champion) will be able to lock themselves into the field based on speeds.

No one wants to have to wait until Thursday?s Gatorade Duel to get into the Daytona 500, so today?s session could be huge for drivers without the promise of a starting spot like Trevor Bayne, Michael Waltrip and Kenny Wallace.

Then come the drivers who aren?t into the top 35 and therefore don?t have a guaranteed spot for the Daytona 500. Remember: Three of these drivers will make the field today, plus either Terry Labonte or Bill Elliott (past champions):

It's Daytona 500 qualifying day at Daytona International Speedway and we've got the start time and some other facts about qualifying for you below.

What time does qualifying start? The most prestigious qualifying session in NASCAR begins at 1:05 p.m. EST today ? a session that actually does little toward setting the actual Daytona 500 lineup. Drivers will get two laps apiece, and there's not much more to do than try to put the car on the bottom of the track and hope it goes fast. But everyone wants to win the pole, because it generates a week of publicity heading into NASCAR's Super Bowl.

What happens today? Officially, the Daytona 500 qualifying session only locks in two spots: The pole position and the outside pole position. But it will also allow three other drivers ? who don't have a guaranteed spot in the 500 ? to clinch a berth in the race based on their speed. The rest of the non-guaranteed drivers will have to rely on Thursday's Gatorade Duels to try and make the field. The Duels set the starting order for the Daytona 500, except for the two top spots decided today.

TV and radio: Today's qualifying session can be seen on FOX. If you aren't near a TV, the radio broadcast can be found on your local Motor Racing Network (MRN) affiliate. Click here to see a list of stations where you can listen (or you can also listen online for free here).

Weather: The unofficial NASCAR weatherman predicts rain will threaten today's qualifying session, though he feels it may dissipate by the late afternoon hours. NASCAR plans to wait as long as possible today to try and qualify, and would then bump qualifying to Monday if needed (instead of canceling it and setting the order by the rulebook).

Last time: Many fans were delighted last year when Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the pole for the Daytona 500, hoping it would lead to another 500 win from NASCAR's most popular driver. It didn't happen, though. Winning the pole for Daytona isn't worth much but bragging rights, when it comes down to it.

While it may sound like an unanswerable question due to the unpredictability that is restrictor-plate racing, the truth is it's really not that random.

At the very least, using recent history as our guide along with speeds from today's opening round of practice, we can narrow it down to a select few drivers who will almost certainly be challenging for the honor of leading the field to the green flag in next Sunday's Daytona 500.

The first of the two Daytona 500 qualifying practice sessions has traditionally been more accurate because some drivers don't participate in the final hour.

Here is where the fastest driver in practice eventually qualified for the Daytona 500 ? and more telling, where the eventual pole-sitter ranked on the speed charts after the first session.

So looking at the last five years, the person who won the pole position for the 500 was no worse than fourth in the opening round of practice. Using this as our barometer, as well as the speeds from practice earlier today, that means the Daytona 500 pole-sitter is likely to be one of the drivers who posted one of the top four speeds in first practice: Greg Biffle, Marcos Ambrose, Jeff Gordon or Trevor Bayne.

Considering Gordon is the only Chevy driver among the top four, there is a 75 percent chance a car with a blue oval on its hood will win the pole on Sunday.

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