Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Teammate’s crew chief gives kudos to Busch

Friday, March 1, 2002 | 10:22 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

Kurt Busch ran a distant second to Kevin Harvick in the NASCAR Winston Cup Rookie of the Year standings in 2001, but at least one informed observer said he believes the Las Vegas native may develop into a better driver than Harvick.

Frankie Stoddard, crew chief for Busch's Roush Racing teammate Jeff Burton, said he has been impressed with what he has seen from the 23-year-old Busch in his first 43 Winston Cup starts.

"He's the real deal," Stoddard said. "He's an extremely talented kid. He's got a great feel for the racecar in talking with Jimmy (Fennig, Busch's crew chief) and he wants to win -- those are things that you've got to have.

"I certainly believe that he will eventually be more talented than Kevin Harvick because (Busch is) younger. I believe that right now he's as good as Kevin Harvick given the same amount of experience Kevin Harvick has had."

Harvick, 26, ran a full season in the NASCAR Busch Series in 2000 and competed in both the Busch and Winston Cup series last year. Harvick ran 35 of the 36 Winston Cup races in the late Dale Earnhardt's car following his death in the season-opening Daytona 500.

"Kurt Busch never ran the Busch Series; he learned a lot of these tracks for the first time last year," Stoddard said. "That was the first time he went to a lot of them because all he ran was in the truck series. He did great things in the truck series and, boom, he went to Winston Cup."

Busch is third in Winston Cup points going into Sunday's UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after a fourth-place finish in the Daytona 500 and a 12th-place finish last week at Rockingham.

"The big test was that crash in Daytona," Rudd said. "The crash data recorder said the G-force in that crash was 50 Gs and if anything was going to bother (my back), that would have been it ... but the back is fine."

"Las Vegas is a fun race track and I enjoy racing out West," Robinson said. "We are taking a new car to Las Vegas this weekend and I have high expectations for this team. We didn't get the finish we deserved in Daytona but we ran inside the top-30 for most of the day before I ran out of fuel and broke a drive shaft."

Robinson, who was 24th in the Daytona 500, is no stranger to the 1.5-mile LVMS track. She qualified fifth for the Winston West race here last October and finished 17th.

"Once the race was all over with and we took care of all the victory lane stuff and all the media, we were leaving in the helicopter and I looked down at the track and it dawned on me what we had accomplished." Martin said.

"It was pretty overwhelming. I've had a lot of success in racing, but I never really paid much attention. I was always so busy looking ahead to the next one, but when I flew out of there and saw that track, it dawned on me that it wasn't just some quarter-mile dirt track in Arkansas."

Kevin Harvick, Robby Gordon and Jeff Green will compete at LVMS this weekend in RCR cars.

Eleven drivers have competed in RCR entries over the years, with the late Dale Earnhardt starting the most races at 529. Childress competed in 188 races between 1969 and 1981.

"StockcarToons -- Grins and Spins on the Winston Cup Circuit" is a compilation of some of Smith's memorable cartoons that have appeared in the Sun during the past three years.