DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 14, 2009) – With Tuesday’s All-Star Game representing the halfway point in the Major League Baseball season, the NASCAR Nationwide Series stand-alone schedule also reaches its second half this weekend at Gateway International Raceway.

And with both events taking place in the St. Louis area, there’s another similarity – the next three races, starting Saturday night in Madison, Ill. – represent the pennant drive for those drivers in the mix for the series championship.

Standings leader Kyle Busch (No. 18 New Balance Toyota) has a seemingly comfortable 192-point advantage heading into this crucial stretch that also includes the July 25 race at O’Reilly Raceway Park and Iowa Speedway’s inaugural series event on Aug. 1.

And in baseball terms, its time for Carl Edwards (No. 60 Save-A-Lot Ford), Brad Keselowski (No. 88 Degree Chevrolet) and Jason Leffler (No. 32 Great Clips Toyota), second through fourth in the standings, respectively, to channel the 1964 St. Louis Cardinals, who overcame an 11-game deficit in late August to overtake the first-place Philadelphia Phillies.

That storyline nearly played out in racing terms last year. Entering Gateway, the drivers in positions 2-4 were 183, 217 and 254 points, respectively, out of first. The furthest back was Edwards, whose 2008 second-half tear is well-documented; he took the championship down to the final race of the season at Homestead-Miami Speedway before falling just 21 points short of leader Clint Bowyer.

This time around, Edwards isn’t staring at such a large deficit. He also has the added advantages of being the defending race winner, having won twice at Gateway and being one of the hometown heroes entered in the event. Edwards is from Columbia, Mo., and considers the track to be his home venue.

His nemesis Busch has only raced at the track twice in his series career, in 2004 and ‘06 where he finished fifth and eighth, respectively.

Leffler’s finished fourth the last two years in this race while Keselowski was fifth last year. He was 26th in 2007, his only other series run at the track. Keselowski has made the most of stand-alone season thus far; in the four events, he has an average finish of 2.75, best among series-only regulars. Busch leads all drivers with a 1.75 average finish in those four races.