Talk of restricting drivers from racing for dual cup points dominates day 2 of testing Friday at Daytona International Speedway

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Photos by Jerry Markland/Getty Images /  NASCAR President Mike Helton speaks to the media Friday about the upcoming NASCAR seaon at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach. During the Preseason Thunder Test on Friday at Daytona teammates Kasey Kahne (No. 4) and Brian Vickers (No. 83) and Jimmie Johnson (No. 48) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88) practice drafting.

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DAYTONA BEACH -- Momentum is gaining in NASCAR for established Sprint Cup drivers like Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart who double up on the Nationide circuit to choose one or the other to challenge for a championship, but not both.

It was a hot topic at the track Friday, even hotter han the morning jet driers beating back moisture from overnight storms. Testing was still the order of the day Friday, especially in the afternoon, the second of three days in preparation for next month's Daytona 500.

NASCAR President Mike Helton confirmed that drivers now have the opportunity to pick the national series where they want to contend for a championship. Expect drivers to continue to compete in all three national series, he said, but declaring a championship stake in one series means broadening opportunities for future stars.

“The hope for this is…there is a level of focus and a level of exposure offered to younger drivers who have personalities that deserve to get attention and be developed along the way [in the NASCAR Nationwide and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series],” Helton said.

Possible changes to the NASCAR points system also were a discussion topic. Helton said it’s an ongoing process, but an enjoyable one.

“The main goal is to get one that's just easier to understand and simpler, but you have to do that with credibility around the championship,” he said. “And we're getting a lot of great input from the drivers about the tweaks that would go along with something like that, so it's actually been fun to work on.”

Even more fun, Helton added, is participating in all the discussions.

“This is the 53rd-annual Daytona 500,” he said, “but after 30-some years in this business, I still get excited to pull inside this tunnel, and walking through the garage area and talking to the guys in the meetings, the owners and the drivers in particular and, quite frankly, a group of drivers that represent NASCAR's future. There's still a high level of energy and enthusiasm to get the season started but more importantly to do it in Daytona in the Speedweeks environment.”

Others are just as eager. Kevin Harvick (No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet), who finished third in the 2010 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, said he’s ready to climb two more rungs in the final standings.

“The biggest thing is it's all about winning a championship at this point, nothing else,” he said. “Nothing else is good enough at this particular point in time. So it's great to have a good year, and we had a good year last year, but in the end it's all about taking home the one trophy that we don't have, and that's the championship trophy.”

Harvick knows how to win championships – he has two NASCAR Nationwide Series titles to his credit, as well as the Daytona 500 win. He’d gladly take another of the latter.

“It's just our biggest race and it leads off the year and the anticipation coming into the Daytona 500 every year is bigger than any other race times ten,” Harvick said. “So from a driver's standpoint, there's nothing like rolling to the green flag at the Daytona 500 because you have a whole winter of anticipation, you have your shiniest, best new car, everybody has got everything brand new and it's the best that anybody will be prepared for the whole season.”

Editor's Note: Information for this posting provided courtesy of NASCAR.