Red Bull Racing Team - Daytona Duels Report

DAYTONA BEACH, Feb. 18, 2011: "Top Gun" taught moviegoers to never, never leave your wingman. Kasey Kahne and Brian Vickers never left theirs Thursday - one out of necessity, the other by default.

Kasey Kahne and his wingman, Juan Pablo Montoya, found each other early in the first Duel 150-mile qualifying race and became inseparable, even dependent on each other. Montoya pushed Kahne; Kahne pushed Montoya. Over and over, they swapped positions in their personal two-car draft so much so that Kahne simply called for a "switch" over the radio, and the spotters watching above made the arrangements.

They pitted together on lap 35 for a fuel-only stop and returned to the fight at the front. Kahne's No. 4 Red Bull Toyota led four times for eight laps and was on point when the field came out of the second caution and into a green-white- checkered finish. But two laps later, the Kahne-Montoya tandem finished third to Kurt Busch-Regan Smith and Kevin Harvick-Matt Kenseth.

"I thought we had a good chance at winning, but so did the other five that we were battling there," Kahne said. "Myself and Juan worked really well together. The Red Bull Toyota was good. I got together with Juan and we tried to stay together the rest of the day and we ended up getting beat a little bit there at the end."

Kahne's fifth-place finish was his fourth consecutive top 10 in the Duels. He won Duel No. 2 last season.

After missing most of the 2010 season while recovering from blood clots, Brian Vickers turned his first "real" laps in 285 days Thursday.

He drafted the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota into the top 10, but lost momentum when the car slipped ever so slightly in turn three. He lost his partner in Ryan Newman as most of field roared past, and Vickers ended up being paired with the No. 09 of Bill Elliott. Vickers and Elliott pitted together on lap 39. Soon after, the lead cars' furious pace put their two-car draft more than 21 seconds behind, and Vickers finished 14th.

"It was just playing catch-up the rest of the time," Vickers said. "We ended up stuck back there without much help."

Based on their finish in the first Duel, coupled with the finishing order of the second, Kahne will start 11th and Vickers 27th in Sunday's Daytona 500.

UP NEXT: Daytona 500, Sunday, Feb. 20, Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Fla.