Toyotas try to get up to speed in qualifying

Who wins the Daytona 500 pole position is one of two big questions hinging on today’s qualifying round. The other: Will Toyota prove it’s ready for prime time?

Under the 500’s qualifying format, only the pole and the other front-row starting spot for next Sunday’s 500 are up for grabs today. The rest of the 43-car lineup will be determined by two 150-mile qualifying heats Thursday.

Today’s session also will be one of the early tests for Toyota, whose Camry is being used for the first time in NASCAR’s Nextel Cup series by seven drivers and three teams: Bill Davis Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing and Team Red Bull.

Only two of those drivers are guaranteed a spot in the season-opening 500. One is veteran Dale Jarrett of Waltrip’s team, because Jarrett can use a provisional spot awarded to a past series champion.

The other is Dave Blaney of Davis’ team because he’s among the 35 drivers automatically in the race based on team owners’ points earned last year.

Five other Toyota drivers must race their way into the field on the 2.5-mile, high-banked Daytona International Speedway. They include Red Bull drivers Brian Vickers and A.J. Allmendinger of Hollister, Calif., who is trying to qualify for his first Cup race after leaving the Champ Car open-wheel series.

The Camry’s first race was Saturday night at the Budweiser Shootout, a 70-lap exhibition for last year’s pole winners and former Shootout winners that kicked off a week of racing here that leads to the 500.

Jarrett and Vickers were in the 21-car field but struggled, and Tony Stewart won the Shootout in his Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet.

“It’s a great way to start the year,” said Stewart, the 2005 Cup champion who has now won the Shootout three times but has never won the Daytona 500.

A close second was David Gilliland of Riverside, who again raised eyebrows by nearly winning in his first race at Daytona.

Gilliland, 30, cut his teeth at small tracks in Irwindale, Perris and elsewhere in California, then became NASCAR’s Cinderella story last June after he unexpectedly won a race in the sport’s second-tier Busch Series. Robert Yates Racing then hired him to drive the No. 38 Ford Fusion in the Cup series.

Gilliland also was among the fastest drivers in practice Saturday, making him a threat to win the pole for the 500.

“I keep saying it’s a dream come true and I hope I don’t wake up from it,” Gilliland said after the Shootout. “They took a chance with me and I’m trying to make them proud.”

In qualifying, the cars circle the track one at a time. But in the 200-lap race, the cars are locked in freight-train-like packs because of carburetor “restrictor plates” mandated by NASCAR.

The plates, which cap the cars’ horsepower, are used at Daytona for safety reasons -- namely, for keeping the cars from exceeding 200 mph and becoming airborne.

But the plates also keep the cars bunched together and put an emphasis on “drafting,” where two or more cars run nose-to-tail to create more speed than they could running alone.

One driver still learning drafting’s nuances is Juan Pablo Montoya, the former Formula One driver who moved to the Cup series late last year.

He’s making his first attempt to qualify for the Daytona 500, driving the No. 42 Dodge for the Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates team, and was among the 10 quickest drivers in practice Saturday.

Today’s qualifying also has a dose of nostalgia, as 72-year-old James Hylton attempts to make the 500.

Hylton drove in more than 600 races and 15 Daytona 500s, the first in 1966, and is hoping to become the oldest driver to compete in a Cup race.

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james.peltz@latimes.com