Notebook: Busch makes memorable debut on oval

Monday, Oct. 15, 2001 | 11:42 a.m.

Kyle Busch won't soon forget his first race on the "big track" at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

It won't be his ninth-place finish that Busch will remember as much as being involved in perhaps the best racing the 1.5-mile oval has seen since it opened in 1996.

In the closing laps of Sunday's Orleans 350 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at LVMS, Busch, Joe Ruttman and Rick Crawford raced three-wide for two full laps before Ruttman blew a left-front tire and spun into the inside wall in Turn 2.

"Running side-by-side, three-wide, with Ruttman and Crawford for a while was pretty neat," the 16-year-old Durango High junior said. "I feel bad; I don't know if I pinched Joe off or not but he went around.

"But it was a good run for us; we came home in one piece and that's all we came here to do and tied my best career finish."

Busch, making his sixth Truck Series start, qualified third for the race and posted his second top-10 finish this season. Busch also finished ninth in his first NCTS start, at Indianapolis Raceway Park in August.

Busch ran in the top five for much of the race until Ruttman's wreck brought out the fourth and final caution period of the race. From that point on, Busch struggled to keep his Eldon Office Products Ford in the top 10.

Busch is scheduled to make his final start in the No. 99 truck at California Speedway on Nov. 3.

He finished in 11th place, a lap down. It was his best finish in four truck races at LVMS.

Gaughan had to pit 18 laps into the race to make adjustments on his NAPA Auto Parts Dodge and assumed the lead on lap 60 when the race leaders pitted.

Gaughan, however, did not get the caution he needed to get back on the same pit sequence as the leaders and lost a lap when he pitted midway through the race.

"The goal of any race is to finish to the capability of the truck and I felt we had a third-place truck out there and we didn't finish third," Gaughan said.

"If I was better at getting the truck ready before the race, we would have been fine because we had to pit early to fix it. I need to get better at getting it set up earlier so we don't have to make those kinds of changes."

The weekend wasn't a complete disappointment for Gaughan, who won Saturday's Winston West race and increased his lead in the championship to 40 points with one race remaining.

When Musgrave pulled into victory circle after the race, there appeared to be several feathers stuck to the windshield of his Mopar Performance Dodge.

"I was coming off Turn 2 and there was a flock of (birds) flying around," Musgrave said. "This (bird) hit the windshield pretty hard and I knew what it was and (I thought) 'Oh, boy, here comes the Humane Society after me.' "

Third-place Scott Riggs, who took fifth Sunday, trails Sprague by 108 points; Travis Kvapil is 157 points back and Musgrave is 158 point behind Sprague.