Friday, Aug. 3, 2001 | 10:39 a.m.
INDIANAPOLIS -- Jack Roush has developed a reputation over the years as having a keen eye for young racing talent.
Before he became a multi-car owner in NASCAR, Roush was instrumental in developing drivers such as Robby Gordon, Wally Dallenbach Jr. and Scott Pruett in his road-racing program.
Since moving into NASCAR's Winston Cup Series in the late '80s, Roush has been responsible for developing young drivers such as Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle and Las Vegas' Kurt Busch.
Roush, who operates eight NASCAR teams (four in Winston Cup and two each in the Busch Series and Craftsman Truck Series), dipped back into the Las Vegas talent pool to find his latest driver: 16-year-old Kyle Busch.
Busch, the younger brother of Winston Cup rookie Kurt Busch, will make his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut tonight in the Power Stroke Diesel 200 at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Although he won't begin his junior year at Durango High School until next month, Busch said he is ready to make the jump from the local weekly racing series -- where he won five of 10 NASCAR Late Model races this summer -- to the big leagues of auto racing.
"To me, it's just another car and another racetrack," Busch said of the No. 99 Eldon Office Products Ford he will be piloting tonight. "You just jump in it, see what it feels like for the first couple of laps, bring it up to speed nice and easy and then you just go for it."
That attitude is what won him at least a one-race audition with Roush. He tested in the truck at Toledo Speedway and, most recently, Chicagoland Speedway and caught Roush's attention with his ability to quickly adapt to the 3,400-pound truck.
"We are certainly interested in looking at Kyle for a few races and seeing what he can do," Roush said. "When we tested Kyle the other day, he was just remarkable. He did better than we could have expected under any scenario and did competitive times of what Greg Biffle was able to do in the same truck.
"His feedback and his response to the changes they made in the truck was spot on; he was right on the money."
Roush said he enjoys bringing along young drivers such as Kurt and Kyle Busch because of the enthusiasm they bring to their jobs.
"We've certainly seen a lot of challenges and taken a lot of satisfaction from bringing along people that weren't involved in the series that they very much wanted to be participants in, and just surround them with support and hardware that would give them an opportunity to shown them what they could do," Roush said.
"There's a blue-sky dimension to working with drivers as they start their career that sometimes initiates more enthusiasm among the sponsors and the fans for the same result that a seasoned driver might get. For young Kyle, it will mean more than for somebody that might be expected to win today, like Greg or Kurt."
Kyle Busch, who said he some day hopes to join his brother in the Winston Cup Series, said he developed his driving style by watching his brother and father, Tom, drive the short tracks in Pahrump and Las Vegas.
"Our styles are very similar," Kyle said of his older brother. "In my first year of Legends racing at (Las Vegas Motor Speedway), he drove my car the previous year and set it up for me. I jumped right in and got real used to it.
"He told me to go out and learn the setup so we could have the same style later on in life, so that's what I did."
Although Busch is more than ready to get behind the wheel of Roush's truck and mix it up with the big boys, he admitted at least two members of his family are a little reluctant to see him do it as such a young age.
"Mom might have been a little (reluctant) to let me do it, but dad was easy," Busch said. "(Kyle) thinks it's a great opportunity for me but he thinks it's way too soon, but he's all for it."
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