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MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- The comparisons have been growing, as many people want to link Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Sr.

They see wins and a brash personality and immediately some people say Busch is a younger version of Earnhardt.

"Please tell me you're not trying to compare those two," Jeff Gordon said. "There's no comparison.

"Kyle is just this incredible talent that he can put a car on the edge like nobody I've ever seen. I've really seen him maturing so much in the last couple of years, but up until this year, he was a guy that would put it so far on the edge that he was making mistakes or would take it too far.

"There's a big difference between that and what Earnhardt would do. Earnhardt was rarely on the edge, to be honest with you, but he was more of a bully. He was the guy that you never counted him out. He was just tough as nails. He would be a lap down and come back and be battling for the win at the end of the race. Just a totally different type of racer on how he approached it than Kyle."

BRAGGING IS FINE: Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he can't fault Kyle Busch for talking about how he's outperformed Earnhardt.

"He has been, and he has every right to brag as much as he wants," Earnhardt said. "I wouldn't trade positions with him, though. I like where I'm at."

Told that Busch said he didn't think there was anything wrong with Earnhardt's crew chief, Tony Eury Jr., Earnhardt said: "I think Kyle has a heart down in there somewhere. I think he's a good guy. He just, you know, has a funny way of wording things sometimes."

STAYING PUT: Kevin Harvick said an extension in his contract keeps him at Richard Childress Racing until after the 2010 season.

"You can go ahead and check my name off that list," Harvick said.

He has driven only for Childress in Cup, moving up after Dale Earnhardt's fatal crash in the Daytona 500.

RAIN OUT: Qualifying was rained out. Jeff Gordon will start first since he leads the points with Kurt Busch second. Clint Bowyer will start third with Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards completing the top five.

Failing to make the race: Sterling Marlin, Tony Raines, Dennis Setzer, Derrike Cope.

NEW NICKNAME: Just call David Reutimann, "The Franchise." His team is.

Reutimann said he heard a football player once say that he was "The Franchise" for the team. Reutimann, who has a modest demeanor, was struck by the bold statement.

So after a recent race, Reutimann joked with a team official he is "The Franchise" at Michael Waltrip Racing.

"I don't think that at all," Reutimann says, "but it's kind of taken off."

NO APOLOGY: Scenedaily.com reported that Jamie McMurray rebuffed Juan Pablo Montoya's attempt to apologize Friday for an incident at Bristol last weekend. Montoya hit McMurray's car in the back.

"I wanted to clarify what happened last weekend because I didn't want to have any trouble with anybody, but he didn't want to listen and at this point it doesn't really matter," Montoya told Scenedaily.com.

McMurray told the Web site: "It's not that I'm not interested in talking to him, it's just that I don't know what there is to talk about."

PIT STOPS: Only once in the last six races at Martinsville has the race winner started outside the top 10.

Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dustin.long@news-record.com