Notebook: Double-dipping not so helpful at Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- This weekend at Bristol, 19 drivers will take part in both the Busch Series and Nextel Cup races. For the first time, these drivers will be driving two completely different racecars with the debut of the Car of Tomorrow in the Sunday's Food City 500.

Driver opinions differ on whether the Busch race on Saturday will help for Sunday's Cup race.

"I think actually it's hurting me a little bit," said Juan Montoya, who will start Sunday's Cup race 36th. "Normally 90 percent of the time it helps and yes, maybe it's going to give me a hand in the race -- what to do with race trim -- but [Cup] qualifying, I went out and normally I know exactly what I need to do. I run nearly three hours in the Busch car and [then] do one lap here and it's the one that counts. It's not easy."

Stremme fast in HH

Seventy-eight percent of the winners at Bristol have started the race inside the top 10. But David Stremme, who will start Sunday's race in 33rd, was smiling after Happy Hour.

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For Busch Series points leader Carl Edwards, it's the feel of the car that differentiates the two.

"It's a lot different. The Busch car travels a lot more and moves around a lot more and has more grip. This [COT] is a little more touchy to drive," he said.

Not everyone thinks the difference between the Cup and Busch cars is substantial. Dave Blaney, who had a good qualifying run in the COT and will start Sunday's race seventh, doesn't see much of a difference.

"All the cars feel pretty much the same at Bristol," Blaney said. "It's really not that big of a difference between the two, at least from the driver's standpoint."

Ultimately you can't replace experience, and getting the track time is what's important for Clint Bowyer, who will roll off 18th on Sunday.

"To me personally, laps here are important," he said. "This place is so unique. It takes so long and you're so up on the wheel, it's nerve-wracking to be around here. You're never relaxed. The more laps you run around here the more relaxed you get, the more of a rhythm you can get in."

"If you were to just jump in that thing and start the race right away, you'd be fidgety and all over the track and it's really hard, for some reason for me, to get calmed down here and get in a rhythm and get relaxed."

COT step in right direction, but not end answer

Driver Jeff Burton said that the Car of Tomorrow's arrival should be hailed as a monumental step in the right direction of safety for Nextel Cup racing.

But Burton also cautioned against anyone believing that it means more can't be done to keep improving in that area.

"With the HANS device, the soft walls and the better head restraints we have in our cars now, there's been a lot of great work that's been done," he said. "But safety isn't a goal; it's a trip. You're on it every day."

Burton acknowledged that many of today's improvements in safety came at a terrible price -- coming in waves after the deaths of four drivers, including Dale Earnhardt, within nine months in 2000 and 2001. But he said that just because the COT has arrived and NASCAR now is going through a stretch where no similar tragedies have occurred is no reason to back off the continuing search for further safety improvements.

"Without people being hurt, we'd be thinking we were doing good enough -- and that's one of the things we have to guard against in the future," Burton said. "It's real easy to look around and say, 'Look how good we are, look how great we are.' It's real easy to convince yourself that you've done enough.

"But [back around 2000] we weren't good enough; we weren't doing enough to move the bar. We were doing enough to get by for a little while, but as we improved in some areas, that made other areas go down. ... And when I say 'we,' I don't mean just NASCAR. I mean all of us. It takes the teams, it takes the drivers, it takes the manufacturers -- it takes everyone. NASCAR has been taking the lead in the last three years, but it doesn't rest solely on their shoulders."

Evernham eyes prospective partner

Ray Evernham continues to talk with Montreal Canadiens owner George Gillette about purchasing an interest in his Nextel Cup team. Gillette, who attended the race at Las Vegas two weeks ago, is expected to be in Bristol for Sunday's Food City 500.

"We're still talking. George Gillett will be here this weekend and trying to learn the business. It's a matter of getting the right partner and getting the right timing. It's not about the money. I need the right partner. I want to win a championship. I spend a large part of my time now out talking about sponsorships and talking with CEOs, and I want to work on the racecars again," Evernham said.

A sigh of relief

As he prepares for his first race, A.J. Allmendinger knows he made the right decision to leave open-wheel racing.

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"That's what I do, work on the cars with my guys and go fast. I need a partner who can do his side and I can do my side. He likes the races. As long as he likes the races and has his own airplane, I'll keep getting him passes."

Jack Roush announced last month that he had sold 50 percent of his NASCAR operation to the parent company of the Boston Red Sox. Evernham said talks with Gillette had not progressed to the point where a specific share amount was being discussed.

How do you spell relief?

For Jeremy Mayfield and A.J. Allmendinger it's B-R-I-S-T-O-L.

Throughout the first four races of 2007, it was the same thing week after week for the two Toyota drivers -- go home after qualifying. But at Bristol, things have changed as both will race for the first time this season in a Nextel Cup event.

"I feel like we won the race," an elated Mayfield said after qualifying 23rd on Friday. "It is just a relief to know that we are going to get to race on Sunday. We've had some time to build some good cars and hopefully now we have turned the corner and things are going to start working our way. I'm just really pumped up. I can't wait to get out there and start the race on Sunday."

Allmendinger, who just missed qualifying for the Las Vegas race, said he was going to do whatever it took to make the 43-car field at Bristol.

"I wanted to get into this race so bad that I ended up brushing the wall on my first lap," Allmendinger said. "I was going to use every inch of the racetrack if I had to, I didn't care."

The rookie, who was the last car to attempt a qualifying run, will start 35th after posting a speed of 122.976 mph. He credits the fact he's run a Cup car here before as the difference maker.

"This is the first track I actually got to test at, so I had a little more confidence coming into the weekend," he said. "We had a great test here last month, the guys did a great job and they kept me pumped."

Earnhardt update

Dale Earnhardt Jr. toyed with the idea of flying home to Mooresville, N.C., on Friday to check on the status of his sister, Kelley Earnhardt Elledge, who underwent surgery to have a benign cyst removed from her pancreas. But Earnhardt was told that surgery went so well that he elected to stay at the track in Bristol.

One day earlier, Earnhardt told reporters that his contract negotiations with Dale Earnhardt Inc. are on hold until his sister is sufficiently recovered. Earnhardt is in the final year of his contract with DEI and has said he is seeking a majority ownership stake in the company his late father founded.

Kelley Earnhardt Elledge, a senior officer for the driver's Busch Series team, has been handling his end of negotiations with DEI, a company now headed by his stepmother, Teresa Earnhardt.

Waltrip, Hammond nominated

During their legendary on-track careers, driver Darrell Waltrip and crew chief Jeff Hammond saw Victory Lane 43 times together as a team. Now, as members of the NASCAR on FOX television broadcasting team, they hope to reach the winner's circle together again.

Both men were honored recently with their first Emmy Award nominations -- Waltrip for "Outstanding Event Analyst" and Hammond for "Outstanding Studio Analyst." Available research suggests that they are the first NASCAR-related TV personalities to ever receive Emmy nominations.

David Caraviello, Bill Kimm and Joe Menzer contributed to this report.