The Miami Herald > Sports > Motor Sports

Motor Sports

Logout

Member Center

Weather Forecast

Posted on Friday, 11.20.09

NATIONWIDE SERIES | FORD 300

Busy Kyle Busch has grip on Nationwide Series

There is no NASCAR series Kyle Busch won't compete in, and no series he dominates more than the Nationwide, where he has eight race victories and 11 runner-ups this year.

Related Content

BY ADAM H. BEASLEY

abeasley@MiamiHerald.com

Fearing the long Thanksgiving drive to mom's house?

Chances are, it won't come close to the commute Kyle Busch faces every weekend.

Busch, who only needs to start his car in the Ford 300 on Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway to clinch the Nationwide Series championship, might as well have his backside permanently attached to his seat.

Busch is the only driver who consistently competes in all three NASCAR series: Camping World Truck on Fridays, Nationwide on Saturdays and Sprint Cup on Sundays.

That means, this weekend, Busch is set to drive 900 miles at a breakneck pace -- 200 in the truck series, 300 in Nationwide and 400 in Sprint Cup, the season finales for all three.

Busch is as pure a competitor as exists in NASCAR, but it's on the Nationwide circuit where he has excelled.

His dominance by the numbers this season: eight race victories, 11 runner-ups and a 190-point margin over Carl Edwards, his closest competitor.

Not surprisingly, Busch doesn't dwell on the races he won but on the ones he let get away.

``Do you know what would be impressive? If those 11 second-place finishes were wins,'' Busch said recently. ``That would be 19 wins. That's what's stupid.''

Then, he let a bit of levity creep in.

``The only thing worse than finishing second is when you finish second in something to a pregnant woman,'' he said. ``Then you're third.''

Busch's brash, win-at-all-costs mentality has endeared him to many NASCAR fans, but also has made him plenty of enemies.

Busch and his older brother, Kurt, who also is in the Sprint Cup Series, started racing go-karts as soon as their feet could reach the peddle.

At age 16, when most of his peers were testing for their learner's permits, Busch was competing in the truck series for Roush Racing. Two years later, he was in the Nationwide Series (then the Busch Series), and hasn't stopped driving hard since.

He battled his brother in the Sprint Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway on Nov. 8, leading for much of the Dickies 500 before running out of gas during the final laps.

``It felt like old times, the way that we raced -- coming up through the ranks of racing,'' Kurt said.

``You want to win on Sundays,'' Kurt added, taking a good-hearted poke at Kyle. ``I think it takes five wins, Nationwide and Truck, to equal one win in the big time show.''

But it's not like Nationwide, widely considered the farm system for the Sprint Cup Series, is bereft of talented racers. Famous names such as Jeff Burton, Clint Boyer and Matt Kenseth occasionally drive on Saturdays and Sundays. But none as consistently well as Kyle Busch.

``It makes it better when you have the Cup guys come over and race with you on the Nationwide tour,'' Busch said. ``If it was just me racing against all of the rest of the guys, it would look kind of silly, but since all of those guys come over and race with us, that's what makes it fun. You go out there and you can beat those guys.''

Save 50% off
regular home delivery
subscription!
Click here.

Support ongoing
news coverage
on MiamiHerald.com
Click here.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

Comments (0)

|