Notes: Feeling Super, except for Kyle Busch

LAS VEGAS -- Kyle Busch showed up at the media conference Tuesday afternoon with a white bandage wrapped around his right thumb.

"I was messing around out at the sand dunes this past week and pulled a Denny Hamlin and hit it on the back of the motorhome bumper," he admitted.

Hamlin received 19 stitches in his left hand last year when he cut it on a sharp piece of metal while playing around his transporter.

Odds and oddities

If you somehow look past the seemingly countless ways to bet on the Super Bowl, there's a tiny corner of the huge toteboard at most Las Vegas sports books that announces the fact that you can make wagers on next month's Daytona 500.

Defending race winner Jimmie Johnson is currently the favorite, as a $1 bet would net you a $5 payoff at the Stratosphere. Conversely, Juan Montoya is posted at odds of 100-1.

Ironically, Las Vegas Motor Speedway is one of the few places in Nevada where you won't find a slot machine on the property. Apparently the casinos downtown were so worried about losing potential business to the proposed speedway that a moratorium on on-site gambling was written into the original agreement.

What it was, was football

With one eye on NASCAR's Super Bowl, drivers are obviously keeping the other one focused on what's happening in the world of professional football.

Dale Jarrett walked into the media center Tuesday wearing an Indianapolis Colts cap, just a few minutes after Kurt Busch expressed his rooting interest in the Chicago Bears.

On Monday, Washington native Kasey Kahne said he was pulling for the Colts because the Bears beat his Seahawks in the playoffs.

However, none of the drivers polled selected Miss Oklahoma to win Monday night's Miss America pageant.

Getting their fill for free

Even with temperatures barely reaching the upper 30s at the start of Tuesday morning's session, a hardy group of about 100 bundled-up fans were already up in the frontstretch grandstand, following the action on the track under threatening skies.

However, scattered showers remained to the south and east of the track for most of the day, allowing NASCAR to get both sessions in and averting a possible Wednesday rain date.

The weather was much better on Monday, as sunshine helped rise temperatures into the 60s.