McCain has now amassed more than 800 delegates toward the 1,191 needed to clinch the GOP crown, while rival Mike Huckabee has 241 delegates. The remaining primary contests have only 774 delegates up for grabs, according to a memo by McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis.

"With only 774 delegates left on the table after tonight, Gov. Huckabee cannot win the Republican nomination for president," Davis wrote in a memo leaked to the press.

Huckabee would need to win 124 percent of the remaining delegates, Davis said, while McCain needs only 35 percent of those at stake in the next few months.

Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and head of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, withdrew after facing such daunting, and impossible odds, but Huckabee has vowed to soldier on.

Huckabee's strategy focuses on winning enough of the remaining delegates to keep McCain from winning the nomination outright. The two would then battle it out for the GOP nod at the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn., this summer.

Huckabee acknowledged the numbers are stacked against him in an interview with CNN's Larry King on Tuesday night. But he said he'll stay in the race because the conservative wing of the party is still looking, despite calls by some Republican bigwigs to step aside.

"I don't think I'm hurting him," Huckabee said, referring to McCain. "In fact, I think it hurts him more if he were to suddenly have absolutely no contest to compete in. I think it hurts the party if we don't continue to discuss the ideas that make us strong against the Democrats. We're talking about nuances within the Republican Party."

Indeed, Davis admitted to a group of Washington reporters on Wednesday that having Huckabee in the race helps keep the media attention on the Republican race. The Democratic battle between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is sucking most of the coverage their way, but the McCain-Huckabee fight is still drawing attention, Davis said.

But, "I want John McCain to be the nominee and the sooner that happens the better it is for all of us," Davis added during a press event organized by the Christian Science Monitor.

Huckabee's campaign was heartened after a close race in Virginia on Tuesday with McCain, though McCain still bested him by 9 points when all the returns were counted and won all three of Tuesday's primaries.

tburr@sltrib.com