Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Busch excited to race at Talladega

Friday, April 20, 2001 | 10:08 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand's motor sports notebook appears Friday. Reach him at bh@lasvegassun.com or 259-4089.

Kurt Busch never has raced at Talladega Superspeedway, but the 22-year-old Las Vegas native still has a pretty good idea of what to expect in Sunday's NASCAR Winston Cup race on the 2.66-mile track.

"It's going to be like racing on an eight-lane freeway," Busch said. "There are going to be cars everywhere and with the new rules package from NASCAR, cars are going to be all bunched up running three and possibly even four wide.

"My goal is to keep my nose clean and stay extremely focused."

Busch, who has two top-10 finishes in eight starts in his rookie season, said he is approaching this weekend's Talladega 500 much as he did the season-opening Daytona 500, in which he ran in the top 10 before a late-race accident knocked him out of contention.

Like Daytona, Talladega is a restrictor-plate track.

"I've never been (to Talladega) before but I hear that it's a lot like Daytona," Busch said. "I enjoyed Daytona and we ran really well there until I made a rookie mistake.

"The difference I have heard between Daytona and Talladega is the handling of the car. The handling of the car is supposed to be less important at Talladega than it is at Daytona. It has been great to have other drivers help me understand what it's going to be like, but right now it's a whole lot of the unknown."

That unknown factor, Busch said, is part of the appeal of Talladega.

"I am excited for Sunday's race," Busch said. "I know that it's going to be a huge mental race and focus is going to be the name of the game. When the green flag drops, my first experience at Talladega will be under way and what a ride it will be."

Busch enters Sunday's race in 31st place in Winston Cup points and is 11 points behind Kevin Harvick in the Rookie of the Year standings.

Stewart said he has received checks ranging from a couple of dollars to $250 to help him pay the fine.

"I've been overwhelmed by the support I've received through donations to pay for my Bristol fine," Stewart wrote on his web site. "And while I still feel what I did on pit lane wasn't right, it is nice to know you have fans that are with you through thick and thin.

"As part of my appreciation, I've decided to match the money that has so kindly come in to both the Gibbs shop and my offices in Indianapolis and send it all to the Make A Wish Foundation." ...

Matt Chambers, who served as Kurt Busch's crew chief last year in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and for the first five Winston Cup races this year, has been hired by Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates as the crew chief for the No. 01 Dodge Intrepid driven by Jason Leffler.

"Driving an IROC car is so much different than my Shell car in CART," Brack said. "But it's really fun to drive these cars. You can bump a little and rub on the other guy's car. You can't do that with the open-wheel cars; that means big trouble for us." ...

CART drivers Patrick Carpentier of Las Vegas, Cristiano da Matta and Brack are forming a rock band and plan to make their public debut at the Cleveland Grand Prix in July. Carpentier will play drums and Brack and da Matta will be on guitars.

Luyendyk turned a fast lap of 222.4 mph Thursday morning during his first full day of testing. Greg Ray won the pole last year with a speed of 223.471 mph.

Ricky May has been hired as vice president of sales and marketing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. May replaces Howard Nemenz, who is leaving LVMS to return to business in North Carolina.