By any measure, the Budweiser Shootout wasn’t the start to the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup season that Hendrick Motorsports was looking for, but the team will have plenty of chances for redemption this week.

Last Saturday afternoon at Daytona International Speedway, Hendrick drivers Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. swept the front row in qualifying for the Daytona 500, the biggest, richest and most prestigious event on the schedule.

Just hours after the Hendrick pole sweep, the team had four of the 24 cars competing in the Shootout. But Martin got caught in an early crash and finished 20th, with teammates Jimmie Johnson (13th), Earnhardt (11th) and Gordon (8th) not finishing where they would have liked, either.

But that was then.

This week, the game will be wholly different and the Hendrick squad hopes it will be much better as well, at least from a team standpoint.

On Thursday, Martin will start on the pole for the first of two Gatorade Duel at Daytona qualifying races, which will set the field for Sunday’s Daytona 500. Close by will be teammates Johnson (starting 4th) and Gordon (7th). Earnhardt will start on the pole for the second Duel.

Both of the Duels will be televised live on SPEED, starting at 1 p.m. with a special edition of NASCAR RaceDay Built by The Home Depot.

In the Shootout, none of the big teams used their Daytona 500 cars, instead opting for cars that were either older or less aerodynamic, or both. But in the Duels, drivers will be in their 500 mounts, and that should be a better indicator of performance potential for Sunday.

“I think guys are going to be a little smarter in the Duels. That’s your 500 car,” said Gordon, who bumped Greg Biffle late in the Shootout, triggering an eight-car crash. “ … Once we get to the 500, that's a totally different deal. Man, it's the Daytona 500 and everybody is going to be going for it and you're going to see a lot more risk being taken and for good reason. That's an important trophy that we all want. You'll see plenty of action and plenty of bump-drafting.” For his part, Earnhardt said the Shootout was a learning experience. Two years ago, in his first race with Hendrick, Earnhardt won the Shootout. Last weekend, though, his car simply wasn’t fast enough.

“This car here is not as good by no means,” Earnhardt said Saturday night of his Shootout car. “The chassis is not as good by no means as what we're racing in the 500. So, I feel pretty good about what we're going to use there and we learned a little bit on our front end. You kind of pick and choose and try to figure out what's the best right-front spring and all this good stuff and how the bump-stops need to work. And I think we learned a little bit.”

Earnhardt was also pleased that he and Martin are in different Duels. “I was glad that me and Mark had qualified on the front row so we don't have to compete against each other on Thursday,” said Earnhardt. “We can sort of settle our own little issues in our qualifying races separate from each other. Hopefully both of us can win a trophy.” Team owner Rick Hendrick made improving Earnhardt’s performance the team’s top priority for 2010, and it paid dividends in Daytona 500 qualifying, which Hendrick hopes will also show up in the race.

“The challenge was we wanted one team with two cars, then they unloaded two cars that ran almost identical times,” Hendrick said of Martin and Earnhardt. “I know this is just one race, but no one here and no one outside of our company will know the effort that Alan (Gustafson, Martin’s crew chief) and Lance (McGrew, Earnhardt’s crew chief) put into this team and these two cars, and I'm really proud of 'em.”

And Hendrick is eager to make amends for Earnhardt’s struggles last season.

“Everybody in the organization has been amazed at the amount of effort,” said Hendrick, who had six 500 victories as a car owner. “Everybody is smiling in that group. They kind of made a commitment. I think when Junior sees that kind of commitment, he's been working hard. We had good opportunities towards the end of the year, and no matter how good we were running, something was going to happen. We all felt like we were snake bit. So it was really good to wipe the slate clean.”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of "Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED," and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to