IN SIGHT Mariah Carey's performance at Daytona? Well, we usually prefer when singers don't mess with the Star Spangled Banner. But after Glitter, we'll gladly take Sunday's show from Ms. Carey. (Is she related to Drew?) FOCUS: KURT BUSCH Busch Kurt Busch continues to roll. After finishing the 2002 season with three wins in the final five races, Busch raced his way to a second-place finish at Daytona on Sunday. And had the race not been ended prematurely by rain, Busch -- with Jimmie Johnson in tow -- might have had a good shot at getting by Michael Waltrip. Last season at Daytona, well before he established himself as a not only a threat to win races week in and week out but also as a legit title contender, Busch told RPM.ESPN.com that he and his team were just trying to stay under the radar. Fat chance of that happening this year. Not that that matters to Busch. "It's just a matter of still doing the same thing and the media makes the stories around it," Busch told us this time around. "So we're going to continue to move forward and try to win some races." OK, so that's Busch's plan for the year. But how about his thoughts on what the 2003 season will be about for NASCAR as a whole? "The media picks up on one thing and they'll run with it," Busch said. See a common theme? Busch was fine with the media last year. And he took responsibility for the pit-road incident in his Gatorade 125 in which he hit Kevin Harvick and one of his own crew members. Though we all remember him pointing at his own backside after Jimmy Spencer wrecked him at Indy. It'll be interesting to see how Busch reacts to increased focus and scrutiny in 2003. PIT PASS With the nation on highest alert or heightened alert or yellow alert (raise shields, No. 1) or whatever it was at, security was tight at Daytona International Speedway throughout the week -- especially Sunday. Among the precautions were bomb-sniffing dogs, who were apparently four John Travolta films too late. By the way, did Travolta tell the drivers to start their engines or declare there was a first down? And too bad the race's Grand Marshal didn't get to wave the flag. We were hoping for some Saturday Night Fever-esque moves up there with the green flag. Imagine Travolta wearing the all-white suit and striking that famous pose, with his hand and the flag pointing to the sky? NASCAR fans might've hurled beer cans at him, now that we think about it. Could Daytona be Daytona if it were at ... say ... Charlotte? Imagine if the birthplace of NASCAR was at some hotel down the street from Lowe's Motor Speedway, and that the Charlotte 500 was the league's most historic race. Two weeks of buildup to one Sunday showdown. Hard to imagine, ain't it? You know why? The track. No, not the Speedway, with it's history and aura. We mean the actual track and its dimensions. Mile-and-a-half track action is much easier to predict than is superspeedway racing. You know what to expect and cobbling together a predicted finishing order isn't nearly as difficult as it is at Daytona or Talladega (save for two DEI cars being in the top ... well ... two). Racing and results are just too unpredictable on superspeedways. You never know what to expect. Absolutely anything can happen. And that's part of Daytona's charm. DEI and RCR. Not only the best teams at Daytona and Talladega, but also the teams involved in NASCAR's newest rivalry? Dale Earnhardt Jr. fired some shots across the RCR bow last week, saying not only that he didn't see eye-to-eye with all of RCR's drivers and that some hadn't been there very long and some might not be there much longer (Junior added that he wasn't talking about the driver the media probably thought he was talking about), but also that the RCR stable didn't have enough respect for team owner Richard Childress. (Though minutes later he'd state that he actually does like all three RCR drivers). "I don't think those guys appreciate what (Richard Childress) is in this sport and the opportunity they have in his race cars." Junior said this in front of dozens of members of the media. GM itself, as is customary following press conferences, released a quote sheet with those comments on it. After Harvick responded by saying all was fine at RCR, the team did respect Childress and maybe Junior was jealous because he'd rather be in an RCR ride than his current DEI No. 8, he and Dale Jr. spoke and allegedly cleared the air. Exactly what was said between the two is a matter of speculation. But Junior backed down from his earlier comments, admitting he was acting "asinine in here (the media center) the other day." But Harvick's post-meeting comments was a bit different. He told us that Junior did admit to saying some of the reported comments, but that many were widely misreported and misrepresented by the media, adding that it was bad for our reputation. One reporter called Harvick out on this, reading Dale Jr.'s quotes back to him. Harvick didn't back down, telling the reporter, "You wrote that" and apparently failing to understand that not only did Earnhardt Jr. make the comments in front of dozens of people, but his own manufacturer released the comments to members of the media. In other words, this was no manufactured story. And Harvick needs to get off his blame-the-media-for-everything high horse and accept that. Of course, maybe he didn't understand the nature of Junior's comments because maybe Junior misled him in their meeting. So either Dale Jr. didn't completely come clean in his meeting with Harvick about the extent of his comments, leading Harvick to blame the media for reporting facts, or Harvick was simply messing with us -- as Dale Jr. might have been, as well. Either way, it makes for good stories. Especially at Daytona. EXHAUST FUMES Rookie rumble: Jack Sprague was the highest-finishing rookie at Daytona on Sunday, placing 14th. Any rookie running well at Daytona is an accomplishment, but Sprague wasn't even a sure-thing to make the field -- as is the case with many rookies who don't have provisionals to fall back on. Just ask Larry Foyt. Sprague's minor-league resume in NASCAR is just about as impressive as Greg Biffle's. But Biffle, who finished 21st at Daytona, is driving for Jack Roush, whose stable was arguably the strongest in NASCAR last year. Advantage: Biffle. Then there's the Ganassi duo of Jamie McMurray and Casey Mears. McMurray (31st) already has a Cup win, while Mears finished 27th after starting at the back. And Ganassi equipment is strong. It's anybody's game this early -- even Tony Raines' (33rd). Losing face: R.J. Reynolds could be pulling it's Winston sponsorship out of the sport, forcing NASCAR to find another company to write a big check and get its name on the championship trophy. So here's a useless hypothetical: Which would be worse -- RJR leaving the sport, or RCR leaving the sport? Money is replaceable, right? There are plenty of corporate dollars out there for NASCAR to tap into in finding a replacement for Winston. But Winston's history and the public identifying with the Winston Cup name would be lost. At the same time, Richard Childress has been a major player in this sport for a couple of decades and provides a link to the late Dale Earnhardt. And while there's plenty of talent on the track (replacing good drivers -- no, not seven-time champs -- isn't that difficult), there is no huge pool of potential uber owners in NASCAR. Verdict? NASCAR could live without RJR much more easily than it could without RCR. Just in case you were wondering. OVERHEARD Michael Waltrip On his short win: "You know what I heard? They're still going to pay me the whole amount. That's kind of crazy, isn't it?" Kurt Busch On the rain-shortened race: "There are no special rules you should develop because this is the Daytona 500. We have to go by the same rules that every other race track has." Dale Jarrett On changing the rules at Daytona: "We have to finish this race, even if it takes a day or two to do it."