Daytona Trackside: Earnhardt and Petty

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Catching up on the news and notes trackside at Daytona International Speedway.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. met with reporters briefly Friday and seemed pretty much resigned to the fact that he won't be making the 12-driver Chase for the Championship this season. He's currently ranked 19th, 285 points behind 12th place Juan Pablo Montoya with nine races remaining before the Chase field is set Sept. 12.

"It's going to be a real challenge for us to make the Chase,'' Earnhardt said. "We're still mathematically in it but we're not trying to catch just one guy. .. we're trying to catch four or five guys. And it's unrealistic to expect all them guys to have enough trouble.

"For us to top-ten 'em to death ain't gonna get it done. So we've got to run better and even though we have improved it seems, we still need to get better and be able to compete."

Earnhardt, who has 12 wins at Daytona International Speedway (counting all series races), conceded that getting to victory circle is the more pressing goal right now. That would give his team and new crew chief Lance McGrew the kind of momentum it needs for the off-season.

"At the end of the year when you're done racing at Homestead and you've run the last lap and you get out of the car, what kind of feeling do you want to have?

"The one I want to have is that we've fixed it. We've got something that we can feel good about and work on and get all our stuff ready for next year and feel like we can go in and get the job done.

"Right now, that's not how we feel as a team.

"We want to have some wins and some consistency and end the year going,'all right, can't wait 'til next year.' ''

*Lost in the all breaking news and controversy regarding embattled driver Jeremy Mayfield is the good news that the first inductees have been nominated for the soon-to-open NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte.

A voting panel will select five people from the ballot, which includes a long list of stock car pioneers from NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., to the original moonshiner runner Junior Johnson to legendary champions Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt to accomplished team owners such as Richard Childress.

It's pretty obvious that that first inductees will have to include France and Petty but there are several schools of thought on who should make the inaugural class beyond those two men.

"If I was doing it, I'd take some from the 1950s, 60s then go to next level,'' Petty said Friday. "I would put the people that got NASCAR started, the people that planted the seed. Then the people that came along next.

"It's going to be a tough decision on the Bill Frances do you put one in or both of them? I would look at history, the people that really got it started. ... If you're not careful you're going to start putting personalities in. ... You have to be careful not to make it a popularity contest.''

*In honor of the 25th anniversary of Petty's 200th and final NASCAR Cup win, which came in this race, the icon will drive the pace car prior for the Coke Zero 400.

"They're going to start me in the front and I haven't got a restrictor plate,'' Petty joked with reporters. "When they throw the flag and I'm getting ready to lap them, they'll throw the flag and I'll come in like a 'start and park' car.

"It really brings back a lot of good memories. This is a very special deal.''

*With rain cancelling Sprint Cup qualifying Friday for the fifth time and shortening three races this year, NASCAR has been under the gun to consider time changes for race starts - specifically, making it more uniform.

The National Football League, for example, starts its Sunday games at 1 and 4 every week. Fans can count on it and schedule their day around the games. As it is now, NASCAR has 1 p.m., 2 p.m., 3 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. starts.

Driver Kyle Busch said he'd be in favor of setting earlier, more definitive race times.

"Definitely, for sure,'' Busch said. "With the way NASCAR runs now you need a TV program or you're all confused. If it's a night race, start it at 7 and if it's a day race, 1 or 2. If you're on the West Coast, start it there at 10 a.m."

*After his car went airborne into the catch fence along the front grandstands at Talladega, Ala. in April, Carl Edwards crawled out of the mangled mess, ran across the finish line and then told the television audience that restrictor plate racing might end up killing someone.

In the days after the race, Edwards backed off the strong comments, but many others called for a change in rules that would better prevent the kind of last lap melee that has the potential to send cars airborne endangering the driver and spectator.

Many others felt the incident - when eventual winner Brad Keselowski bumped Edwards from behind - was just a racing incident - severe, but one-of-a-kind and a consequence of the sport.

Edwards moved to block Keselowski from passing him and the two cars collided sending Edwards Ford into the grandstands, where six people were injured from flying debris.

Edwards said at Daytona this week that he really hasn't thought much of the wreck in months and was completely comfortable for Saturday's restrictor plate 400-miler at Daytona.

"Honestly, I've had wrecks that were worse feeling than that by far,'' Edwards said. "That one was pretty wild and the potential for something bad to happen was maybe a little higher.

"If I had to do it over again, I think it would end up probably the same way. At least I'm aware more of the fact that, hey, there's something that can happen that I hadn't thought of before.

"It's funny. In racing you forget about those wrecks quick and then you go do the same stupid stuff again and again.''

Edwards Roush-Fenway Racing teammate said that the calls to change rules or car components as a reaction to the crash weren't really practical.

"Change it to what?'' Kenseth asked. "That's the question.

"Everybody's like, 'the rules have got to change.' They'll (NASCAR) say, what to you guys want to change it to? and then everybody's like, 'I don't know.'

"Certainly the wreck that he (Edwards) had and even me being upside down that Saturday at Talladega, those are the guys that are probably going to make the comments.

"I just don't know what you do. ... You're going to have wrecks, no matter what the package was.''