Qualifying Today at California Speedway

California Speedway’s first night race weekend will get underway this afternoon when NASCAR Nextel Cup and Busch series drivers qualify for the Pop Secret 500 on Sunday and the Target House 300 on Saturday.

Sunday’s race, promoted as the “Finish Under the Lights” 500, will start at 4 p.m., with darkness settling in as the 250-lap race finishes between 7:30 and 8. Qualifying will be in the sunlight, however, at 3:10 p.m. today.

It will be a busy day for 10 Nextel Cup regulars, who plan to double up and drive in Saturday’s Busch race as well as Sunday’s main event.

Cup champion Matt Kenseth, in a Ford; Bobby Labonte, Kevin Harvick, Joe Nemechek and Michael Waltrip in Chevrolets; and Sterling Marlin, Kasey Kahne, Casey Mears, Jamie McMurray and Greg Biffle in Dodges will be on the two-mile, D-shaped oval today on five occasions -- two practice periods, two qualifying runs and an hour’s final practice for the Busch race.

Nemechek was questionable after crashing into the wall Saturday night at Bristol, Tenn., but Thursday he said he was ready to go.

“I took a good lick, I felt it,” said the driver of the U.S. Army Chevrolet. “The car hit driver’s side first, but luckily it wasn’t flush. All the safety items worked, and I thank my guys on the crew for making sure everything is in the right place every week. I’m ready to have a good run at California.”

Twice, Nemechek has started Cup races in the front row at Fontana, but his results have not been good. In 1997, he sat on the pole for the inaugural race but finished 18th. Last year he started alongside pole-sitter Kahne and was running with the lead pack when his Chevy ran out of fuel two laps from the end. He finished 28th.

Labonte was a late Busch entry.

“We weren’t going to do this race originally, but when we didn’t qualify at Michigan because of the rain, we decided to run ... at California instead,” said Labonte, one of only two drivers who have won both the Busch and Cup championships. He won the Busch title in 1991, the Cup in 2002. Ned Jarrett was the other double winner.

In a reverse process, two Busch regulars, Kyle Busch and J.J. Yeley, will try to make the 43-car Nextel Cup field as well as their own Busch race. The Target House 300 will start at noon Saturday.

Having so many Cup drivers cherry-picking in the Busch race has long been controversial. In 24 Busch races this season, Cup drivers have won 11, including last week’s by Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Bristol.

The negatives are that Cup drivers take money and the spotlight from Busch regulars, depriving them of not only the purse check, but also the publicity that might help in securing bigger sponsors.

The plus is that it gives young drivers an opportunity to compete on the same playing field with drivers at a higher level, drivers they hope to race with later.

“I know how some guys feel, especially the ones that are making a career out of Busch, but for a younger driver like myself, it is a great opportunity to learn,” said rookie Kyle Busch, who has won five series races. “Every time they run with us, I follow one of them, watching their lines, how they pace themselves and how their race plan develops. I enjoy it. It’s like going to class in a subject you really like.”