Contenders face double jeopardy at Daytona

            "Mirror driving" is a double entendre in tonight's Coke Zero 400.

            Restrictor-plate racing rewards a canny ability for drivers to observe what others are doing around them, but the term also relates to the championship race that transcends even Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR's most famous track.

            With the Chase for the Sprint Cup nine races away, drivers have to go for the bonus points that determine Chase seeding. Each driver in the Chase receives 10 points for each victory. Based on present results, Kyle Busch and Mark Martin would enter the Chase with 30 extra points, or 5,030. A year ago, Busch's eight regular-season victories have him 80 extra points at the beginning of the Chase.

            Those points don't mean anything if a driver fails to make the Chase, and Martin is in 11^th place. Only 12 make it. At present, Martin's margin over 13^th-place Kasey Kahne is only four points.

"You know, you go out here, and you race, and we take our lumps and we take our good days," said Martin. "Some days we get more than we deserve, and some days we don't get what we deserve. We just go out here and do our thing and hope it turns out well."

            His highness - The race marks the 25^th anniversary of Richard Petty's 200^th and final victory.

            Carl Edwards called the man known as The King "larger than life."

"To me, he was a mythical figure," Edwards continues. "Now I get to see him and talk to him. He's just a regular, down-to-earth guy, that's Superman, really, to all of us.

"One of the neatest things he did to me is he pulled me aside one time after we went to our event for Coca-Cola, and I had forgotten my dress shoes, so I had these boots and they were all nasty, so I'm wearing a suit with these nasty boots, and he said, ‘I don't mean to get in your business, son, but you make enough money, and when you're going to go to something nice like that, you need to get yourself a nice pair of shoes and dress appropriately. I think that would be good for you.'

            Edwards said he always keeps a pair of dress shoes in his airplane now.

            Ode to Alan - Since Tony Stewart owns a controlling interest in his team and he is leading the Cup standings, comparisons with the last driver-owner to win a championship, Alan Kulwicki in 1992, are inevitable.

            But Stewart said there's no comparison.

"He had to work a lot harder than we did because he had his own engine program," said Stewart. "He had to do his own chassis. That's something we have had the advantage of having our alliance with Hendrick Motorsports and knowing that we don't have to worry about the engine package each week. We don't have to worry about the chassis and how they are evolving.

"We have those luxuries that Alan (Kulwicki) didn't have. I think still, to this day, that's one of the most remarkable accomplishments I've ever seen in this sport after having been in it for a while."

            Stewart never raced in NASCAR's premier series until 1999, six years after Kulwicki's death in a plane crash in 1993.

            On deck? - Seven drivers who won races in 2008 have yet to win a race this season.

            They are Edwards, Greg Biffle, Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton, Ryan Newman and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

            Edwards won nine races last season, more than any other driver.

            Nothing to do, huh? - In addition to the Nationwide and Sprint Cup series, Kyle Busch, joined by Cup rookie Scott Speed, is competing in today's Brumos Porsche 250, a Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series race.

            What a long time - Matt Kenseth is facing long statistical odds in trying to follow up his Daytona 500 victory.

            A sweep of the Cup season's two Daytona visits hasn't happened since Bobby Allison pulled it off in 1982.

You may contact Monte Dutton at mdutton@gastongazette.com.