"It's going to be the epic battle, and it should be the battle of a lifetime and the century," Gibbs driver Tony Stewart quipped. "There may not be another battle of this proportion for the rest of my life, my career, for the century."

"I think you can't just limit to those two teams," Stewart said. "But like I said, if it helps us make a better headline for tomorrow, yeah, it's going to be the battle of a lifetime."

That's certainly the way it looked after all four Hendrick cars and two of the three Gibbs cars overcame engine problems that forced them to swap their motors before Thursday's races. Just the day before, Gibbs had four motors travelling up I-95 as four motors headed down to Daytona, and the two truck drivers honked as they passed each other on the busy road.