Busch crash mars session at LVMS

Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2001 | 11:24 a.m.

NASCAR Winston Cup drivers and their speeds from Monday's test session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway:

Elliott Sadler: 169.833 mph

Andy Houston: 169.242

Jerry Nadeau: 169.136

Joe Nemechek: 168.324

Jeff Gordon: 168.214

Ricky Craven: 168.193

Bobby Hamilton: 167.333

Brendan Gaughan: 166.651

Mark Martin: 166.400

Kenny Wallace: 166.266

Dale Earnhardt: 165.193

Mike Skinner: 164.755

Terry Labonte: 164.674

Kurt Busch: 163.127

Kurt Busch's first trip to Las Vegas Motor Speedway as a NASCAR Winston Cup driver was not exactly the homecoming he had envisioned.

The 22-year-old native Las Vegan spun and crashed his Roush Racing Ford Taurus on his sixth lap during Monday's NASCAR open test at LVMS. Busch was not hurt in the incident and his car sustained moderate damage.

"We were just shaking down a new car," Busch said. "We've got two new cars here and this one had a slightly different feel. It's not fit for a cold day like today and a green racetrack -- the (weekend) rain cleaned everything off the track.

"I was just trying to creep up on it and it got away from me. I made a mental mistake; I just tried to bring it up to speed too quickly."

His brush with the wall notwithstanding, Busch said he is eager to race in his hometown in the March 4 UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400.

"I was here two years ago in a Winston West car and that thing didn't turn for nothing and this thing right here -- as we can tell -- turned around pretty good," Busch said.

"It's going to be great to race in front of the hometown crowd; it's something I didn't get to do with the trucks and I enjoyed it with the Southwest Tour. I came here two times with the Southwest Tour and won both of those races here in Vegas."

Busch, who will compete for Rookie of the Year honors this season in the Winston Cup Series, made seven starts in the No. 97 Roush Racing Ford last year. He twice qualified 10th and had three top-20 finishes, including a 13th-place showing in the UAW-GM Quality 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway near Charlotte, N.C., in October.

As well as competing in seven Winston Cup races last season, Busch ran the full NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule last year. In addition to winning four races -- a series record for a rookie -- and posting 16 top-10 finishes, Busch finished second in the championship and was the series' Rookie of the Year.

Although Roush Racing has yet to secure a primary sponsor for Busch's Taurus, the Durango High graduate said the team has high expectations for the 2001 season.

"We're looking to copy what (Roush Racing teammate) Matt Kenseth did in his rookie season last year: Top 15 in points and put ourselves in position late in the season to win a race or two," he said.

"But we've got small victories we need to overcome first like getting on and off pit road and really making the team come together and getting the pit stops correct, and making the right adjustments on the car during the race."

In the meantime, Busch said he is concentrating on making the adjustment from the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series to the highly competitive Winston Cup Series.

"The trucks are very comparable to the (Southwest) Tour cars and everything else I've been familiar with," Busch said. "I'm just having a hard time adjusting to the downforce that these Winston Cup cars produce; that's the biggest step that I've got to overcome.

"It's going to take the people at Roush to help us out. We work together as a team -- we've got great information from (Jeff Burton and Mark Martin) already, it's just a matter of being able to put it all together."