Busch shows he’s Milwaukee’s best

Wednesday, July 5, 2000 | 10:22 a.m.

Kurt Busch had never turned a lap on the legendary Milwaukee Mile prior to last weekend's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series DieHard 200.

But the 21-year-old Las Vegas native said he wasn't surprised that his first pole and his first victory in the truck series came at the West Allis, Wis., track.

Busch said he drew on his years of experience driving on the Las Vegas Motor Speedway 3/8-mile track to master the flat Milwaukee Mile.

"Milwaukee was my style of a racetrack," Busch said after a dominating performance in Saturday's race. "It's a finesse type of track and it reminded me a lot of the old Las Vegas 3/8-mile, where you have to be at a certain place at a certain time on the racetrack and you've got to slide it around just perfect. And whoever can slide it around the best for 200 laps wins the race.

"The track just fit me perfectly and even the race played out to be my type of race where there are long green-flag laps, green-flag pit stops, four-tire stops, and a little bit of pit strategy at the end. Everything just went our way."

Indeed. After winning the pole on Friday and becoming the youngest driver in NCTS history to earn a Bud Pole Award, Busch led 156 of the 200 laps during Saturday's race. He also is the youngest driver to win a race in the seven-year history of the series.

Busch was hired late last year to drive the No. 99 Exide Batteries Ford for team owner Jack Roush after winning the NASCAR Southwest Series championship.

He finished second in his first NCTS start this season, at Daytona International Speedway, and had three other runner-up finishes prior to Saturday's win, which came in his 14th start.

Victory had eluded Busch on at least two other occasions this season. In one race, Busch was in contention in the closing laps when he ran out of fuel. He was leading late in the race on another occasion when his crew elected not to take on new tires during a pit stop and he was unable to keep up with the leaders.

"(The win) was not necessarily long and awaited, but it did take a while for things to come together," Busch said. "We posted four second-place finishes, which was a good sign that a win would come in the near future.

"We just had a few bad incidents in a row, whether we got tapped by another driver with a few laps to go or we ran it out of gas or didn't put tires on it or I ran into the fence. We finally took care of all the different mistakes that could possibly happen and rolled it to the start/finish line first at The Milwaukee Mile."

In doing so, Busch became the first native Las Vegan to win a race in a national racing series. He has all but clinched the Rookie of the Year award in the truck series and he stands fifth in the championship with 10 races remaining.

"It's really hard to explain (my feelings)," Busch said of the victory. "It's an unbelievable achievement for myself and for this team, but they've had goals since the beginning of the season to win a couple races and be in the top five in points, which I had no idea we would be able to do."

Now that he has won, Busch said he is confident the No. 99 team is capable of winning more races this season.

"There are plenty more opportunities (for wins)," he said. "We're looking to go to a couple of these new tracks like Chicago Motor Speedway or Dover on the same playing field as everybody, so those could be good opportunities.

"Then there are a few short-track races like (Indianapolis Raceway Park) and Richmond and Nashville where I think we can excel. We've done real well on the miles so far, so really we've got an opportunity everywhere we go."