Notes: Junior not ruling out N'wide team going to Cup (cont'd)

Earnhardt concedes Chase is unlikely

Even if Earnhardt and his No. 88 team continue to improve their performances, Earnhardt concedes that qualifying of the Chase for the Sprint Cup will be a difficult proposition.

Earnhardt Jr.

"We have quite a ways to go to be able make the Chase," said Earnhardt, currently 19th in the Cup standings, 285 points behind 12th-place Juan Montoya. "We're still mathematically in it, but we're not trying to catch just one guy we're 200-and-some points behind.

"We're trying to catch four or five guys, and it's unrealistic to expect all those guys to have enough trouble, and for us to top-10 'em to death ain't going to get it done. We've got to run better, and even though we have improved, it seems, we still need to get better. To be able to drive up into the top three last week [at New Hampshire] was a lot of fun, but we need to be able to stay there once we get there.

"Making the Chase is the goal, but at the end of the year, when you're done racing at Homestead, and you 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 fixed it, that we've got something that we can feel good about and work on and get all our stuff ready for next year."

Battling the heat and humidity

A couple quick-hitting rain storms cooled temperatures at Daytona this weekend, but heat in the 90s and energy-sapping humidity has plagued the track. Yet two Sprint Cup drivers plan to double-dip on Saturday, racing 650 total miles in two events.

Busch

Defending Coke Zero 400 champion Kyle Busch will team up with Sprint Cup rookie of the year candidate Scott Speed in a Chip Ganassi Racing Daytona Prototype Lexus Riley sports car in the Brumos Porsche 250 Grand-Am Rolex Series race at 2 p.m. ET on Saturday afternoon, with practice and qualifying earlier in the day. Four hours later they'll compete in the 400-mile Sprint Cup race.

Former Grand-Am champions Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney, who've teamed with Johnson in previous sports-car events, said they've been working hard on the cooling systems in their closed-cockpit cars, but Daytona in the summer is a daunting task.

"First off, I think it's great what they're doing, I like it that those guys are going to be in the race [and] I think they'll bring some attention and hopefully will put on a great show," Gurney said. "I expect them to be very quick. It will take some adjustment to drive the car, but we know from when Jimmie Johnson has run with us, he's just a class act all around and super fast and super focused.

"If those guys are anything like Jimmie, then we'll have a hard time. We love having Jimmie there. Obviously that will be great if we can get him back again for next year, for the 24 [Hours]."

Fogarty cited the heat as the stock-car drivers' greatest challenge.

Speed

"It's going to be brutal -- it's going to be tough," Fogarty said. "I know the Ganassi guys obviously have their cooling system figured out pretty well, but it's really all relative. It's still hotter than you-know-what inside that thing. Those guys are going to have to be careful. They'll have to make sure they don't develop any cramps and stay hydrated. That's going to be tough."

In typical NASCAR fashion, Speed's Cup crew chief Jimmy Elledge said his driver would have no trouble.

"He's an old Formula One guy, he knows what that's all about," Elledge said. "Those wine and cheese [sports-car] guys, they run 30-minute sprints with a mandatory lunch break. Our guys are used to running 500-mile races in cars that aren't that cool. I don't see them having a problem."

"There's nothing you can do [to prepare]," Fogarty said. "It literally would be tough to replicate the conditions of a Daytona prototype cockpit. Even if you could, you'd have to be a serious masochist to subject yourself to that. Just hydrate. It's going to be a one-day event [but] it's going to be a tough day, so just suck up for that one day and get through it and get the job done."

Gordon said the Pirelli tires used by the sports cars wouldn't create any issues for the stock cars, in his opinion.

"I haven't really thought about it a lot to be honest with you," Gordon said. "It's a good question but we won't know until [Saturday]. You know this track is always pretty hot and slick and those guys run pretty much around the bottom and I don't know, I don't think they are going to lay a ton of rubber down. So I don't think it's going to be a big issue, but we'll find out once we get out there.

"You know this place is kind of strange for putting rubber down on the track anyway -- it's not like most tracks because the radius of the corners is so big and it's fairly abrasive and that wears tires. I can't really say that it lays a lot of rubber down and if it does, it won't take us long to get the Goodyear rubber laid in there."

Sporting News Wire Service contributed to this report.