DEI qualifies three teams in top eight positions for tonight’s Coke Zero 400

Paul Menard is the pole sitter at Daytona Speedway.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Although Dale Earnhardt Inc. might not be a championship contender, it showed Friday it still can be a force at Daytona International Speedway.

DEI swept the front row in qualifying for tonight’s Coke Zero 400 and ended up with three drivers in the top eight positions.

Paul Menard won the pole when he covered the 21‚Ñ2-mile superspeedway with a fast lap of 185.916 mph, just ahead of teammate Mark Martin. Rookie Regan Smith was eighth.

DEI’s other driver, Martin Truex Jr., was well back in 35th. He was driving a backup car after his primary car failed inspection Thursday and was seized by NASCAR.

Truex’s setback — he could be docked points for an illegal body modification — combined with Martin’s Friday announcement that he was moving to Hendrick Motorsports gave DEI a rough start to the weekend. But the team rebounded with its strongest qualifying effort of the season.

“We did our homework,” Menard said. “We’ve made horsepower gains.”

Hendrick Motorsports driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. qualified third, followed by Joe Nemechek and Johnny Sauter. Series points leader Kyle Busch was ninth.

With 45 drivers trying to make the 43-car field, Scott Riggs and J.J. Yeley were the only two who failed to make the race. Yeley’s failure came a week after a season-best, third-place finish in New Hampshire.

Boris Said, meanwhile, may have gotten some redemption in making the field. Said was the provisional pole-sitter here during qualifying last July but missed the race when rain washed out part of time trials and the field was set based on points.

“I was so nervous about it,” Said said after qualifying seventh. “We’ve been snake-bit so much by weather with our small team. It’s just the bad luck of Mother Nature.”