Sterling Marlin has the first win for Ganassi's new Winston Cup team.

Mike Skinner climbed out of a sickbed and won the second race by a few inches over Dale Earnhardt Jr., a win that left Skinner in tears.

The victory in the opener was the sixth for Marlin at Daytona International Speedway and third in qualifying races. He won with a bold move down the backstretch, taking his car almost to the grass while passing Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon and Michael Waltrip.

Marlin gave new owner Chip Ganassi, whose CART teams won four titles, a victory his first time out. The driver from Tennessee beat the Chevrolet of Jerry Nadeau by two car lengths.

"Everybody got to the high side, and we went to the bottom," Marlin said. "That last lap was a shootout."

Earnhardt finished third followed by Andy Houston and Jimmy Spencer.

Earnhardt attempted to protect his lead by blocking all the way to the grass, but it wasn't enough to hold off the two cars that pulled ahead of him. Nadeau followed Marlin across the finish line.

"I knew we was had," Earnhardt radioed to his crew after Marlin and Nadeau pulled off the move. "That's a hell of a way to finish a race.

"I was a sitting duck. I was the duck and they were the hunters. I wish Gordon had stayed with me and tried to go."

The top 14 cars advanced into Sunday's Daytona 500 and will form the inside rows from 2-15.

The new superspeedway package created by NASCAR, which includes a larger carburetor restrictor plate and an aerodynamic package, proved effective with some wild passing throughout the 50-lap race.

Nadeau, who was forced to start at the rear of the 26-car field when his front row qualifying speed was disallowed for a rules violation, was able to drive from last to second in the race.

"The car was good," Nadeau said. "This is just a taste of what the race is going to be. It's a madhouse out there, like a bunch of cannibals chasing a deer. I got behind Sterling, who had a heck of a run, and he got by Jeff Gordon. I'm happy to get second place and I'm happy for the team.

"Tony Furr wasn't the only crew chief that got caught the other day, there were 18 other crew chiefs that got caught. We had the dunce cap on for the last five days and were able to take it off today."

Marlin wrapped up the third spot for Sunday's $11 million race.

The new Dodges of polesitter Bill Elliott and Stacy Compton locked up the front row in time tests last Saturday. Compton had the pole for the second of the qualifiers, which establish positions 3-30 for Sunday's season-opening race.

Elliott led the first nine of 50 laps, then settled back in the field.

The race might have given Ford drivers more ammunition to complain that NASCAR's new aerodynamics package has handicapped them. After a top-five sweep in last year's 500, they have been the slowest of the four competing brands.

Three-time and defending 500 champion Dale Jarrett, who started alongside Elliott, was 24th in his Ford and failed to finish after being involved in an accident with rookie Ron Hornaday with four laps remaining. Jarrett stilled qualified for Sunday's race based on earlier time-trial speeds.

The new racing package, which included aero and carburetor changes, enabled the cars to run in a huge pack with lead multiple lead changes. For several years, racing at Daytona had been a single-file parade at 190 mph with virtually no passing.

This time, the cars were two abreast for much of the first race. The winner averaged 147.493 mph in a race slowed three times by eight caution laps and there were 10 lead changes among six drivers. There was one lead change in total in the two qualifiers last year.

In the second race, Skinner took the lead in his Chevy on the 47th lap with the Dodge of Ward Burton close behind. But Earnhardt Jr. passed Burton in the first turn and raced into the lead down the backstretch.

He held it through the fourth turn, but Skinner had a little more momentum on the high side of the banking in the tri-oval and won the battle of Chevys by .004 seconds. Skinner, who never has won a Winston Cup race, wiped away tears after crossing the finish line.

Skinner said he was so ill the night before the race his starting spot was in jeopardy.

"Unfortunately, I got the flu last night and was really, really sick," he said. "Richard (car owner Richard Childress) even asked me before the race if I wanted him to get somebody else to run the race."

Jeff Burton, second in the 500 last year and a winner last July of Daytona's Pepsi 400, was third in a Ford, followed by his brother's Dodge and the Ford of Rusty Wallace.