Kyle Busch growing into successful NASCAR career

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Kyle Busch growing into successful NASCAR career
By Rea White - Associate EditorWednesday, March 12, 2008


One might think that Kyle Busch had enough, what with racing in the Craftsman Truck, Nationwide and Sprint Cup series this past weekend. But, no, apparently not.

Busch clearly is not resting on his laurels, enjoying his status as points leader in the Cup and truck series and sitting third in the Nationwide standings.

Sunday, Busch made history by winning at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a victory that not only landed the 23-year-old his first victory as a driver for Joe Gibbs Racing, but also gave Toyota a Sprint Cup trophy for the first time. What does the 23-year-old do to celebrate?

He goes testing – with his Super Late Model team and then with his Billy Ballew Motorsports truck team.

Monday and Tuesday he was at Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway, testing with a friend of his in the car he owns. Wednesday he headed to Martinsville, Va., with his truck team for two days, and then it will be off to Bristol, where he’ll race in both the Nationwide and Cup events.

“Every day at the race track,” Busch says, not sounding at all unhappy with the idea.

It’s obvious that Busch likes driving the car more than talking about it, likes gaining wins and moving through the standings more than
discussing how he drives.

Still, he’ll bite on those questions. Few drivers have ever been asked to compare themselves to someone else, to rate their own talent, yet Busch is asked those questions week to week as he gains more and more success this season.

Other drivers find themselves increasingly asked about Busch as well. As Dale Jarrett prepares to leave the sport, he speaks well of the young driver who is carrying the banner for it right now.

Jarrett was asked if Busch is the sport's next big star, and he immediately jumped on the fourth-year driver’s bandwagon.

“I don't know if he's the next one; I think he is it right now,” he says. “He is an amazing young man, talent-wise. Pretty incredible what he can do with a race car, a truck, just different types. [At] Atlanta this past weekend, he drove a truck and a Nationwide car and the Sprint Cup car, which are all three totally different animals, so to speak, and he was the fastest in each one of them and very easily could have won all three.”

Jarrett continued to heap praise on the young driver.

“It's just amazing,” he says. “He has seemed to adapt to all of this in a way that nobody has in a long time. … He's fearless and has that youth about him and does – just by what I see, he doesn't think that race car can ever get out from under him, and he drives it to that limit every single time. You know, that's a quality that not everyone has and is able to do that.”

Jarrett says Busch is exciting and fun to watch and adds that a driver like this is exactly what the sport needs.

Jarrett does qualify his remarks, however, saying that Busch needs to win more races and race for the championship to be considered the next superstar.

But, he continues, “He’s right there on the verge of it.”

Busch has clearly found his home at Joe Gibbs Racing this season. While he doesn’t speak unkindly of his former employer, Hendrick Motorsports, and speaks only of expectations that it will return to the top, he seems comfortable where he is.

He can’t really define what the difference is, but he doesn’t deny that something clicked with this team that hadn’t been there for him.

“[I’m] definitely more comfortable with where I'm at,” he said. “Yes, I feel I fit in more with [JGR teammates] Denny [Hamlin] and Tony [Stewart] and more with the Gibbs folks than maybe I did over at the other side, and for whatever reason it is, I'm just not quite sure.

“You know, I'm happy with where I'm at and being in my own skin and being able to do the things that I want to do and being supported in that.”

Part of that is his ability to run the 14 truck races that are companion events to the Cup series and to run in the Nationwide series as often as he is.

“[Team president J.D. Gibbs] is pulling his hair out still because I like to do it so much, but he supports it still and tries to help me go out there in order to run faster,” Busch says. “I think it's only been able to help and benefit me. “

As far as his own driving style is concerned, Busch says that hasn’t essentially changed at all.

He’s always been the type of driver to take a few chances, to go all-out whenever he can in an effort to gain ground. He says he’s still the same as he’s always been – he’s just gained a little more experience in handling his talent.

“You can't really change your driving style as a race-car driver,” he says.

“[You] just can't become somebody else that you're not. So for me I've been the same race car driver since the beginning, since I got into this Cup series, and I think maybe it's just a bit of more maturity and selecting my moves a little bit differently and learning from those mistakes that I've had in the past and just being more in tune with instead of going left, you turn right, or instead of doing some gas, you do some brake or something like that.

“So the driving style is still the same. I think I've just perfected it a little bit more and being able to learn more on the racetrack and doing more of what I think I need to be doing which so far this year has been pretty good. So, fortunately, that's all worked out, and we've had some fun.”

Kyle Busch growing into successful NASCAR career - Sprint Cup Series - Scenedaily.com