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BROOKLYN, Mich. -- NASCAR President Mike Helton says there won't be "a major change" to the car any time soon.

His comments came Saturday, a day after Dale Earnhardt Jr. implored series officials to fix the car and improve the racing.

"I think where we are right now, the consensus in the garage area, which leads us to our consensus, is that there's not going to be a major change to this car," Helton told The Associated Press.

Helton notes that major changes to the car would cost teams more money. Not all teams could afford such added costs.

"Urgency could create more havoc or more expenses that we don't need," Helton said, according to the AP. "And, oh, by the way, I'd make the argument that the racing we've got on the race track is as good as I've seen it in a long time. So a reaction from us could interrupt that."

The 12 different winners this season equal the number for all of last season but it is four off the number of winners in 2007.

WINLESS: Carl Edwards enters today's race still searching for his first Cup victory of the season but that doesn't concern him as much as it might others.

"The mission, right now, as much as people would like to write the story &ellipses; I'm way more interested in being in the Chase and winning the championship," said Edwards, who is sixth in the points. "That's the key. So, if we get the wins, we get 'em."

IMPROVEMENT: Pole-sitter Brian Vickers' winless streak is at 100 races. The question is if this will be the day he wins for the first time since his Talladega victory in 2006 and climb closer to making the Chase?

"I know we can get in the Chase, but that doesn't mean we will," he said. "We've got a lot of work ahead of us, and we can't make any mistakes. We've made our fair share this year on pit road or engines or track or whatever. That's the reason that we're in the position we're in. I feel like we've run better than 14th in the points, but we've had a lot of things go wrong."

NATIONWIDE: Brad Keselowski swooped past Brian Vickers and Kyle Busch to take the lead in the final turn, then held on to win the Nationwide series race at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn.

Keselowski took two tires on his final pit stop, then took advantage of a furious battle for the lead between Vickers and Busch on the last lap. Vickers finished second and Busch third.

It was a rough afternoon for Carl Edwards, whose hopes of a championship in NASCAR's second-tier series took a hit when he crashed early.

Busch apparently bumped Vickers' car pulling onto pit road and the two exchanged words, but the confrontation didn't escalate.

PIT STOPS: Mark Martin was the fastest in the final practice session with a lap of 181.717 mph. He was followed by Brian Vickers (181.621 mph), David Ragan (180.519), David Stremme (180.451) and Jimmie Johnson (180.419). &ellipses; Dale Earnhardt Jr. was eighth fastest in the final practice with a top lap of 180.054.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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