Thursday, July 3, 2003 | 9:59 a.m.
Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at [email protected] or (702) 259-4089.
When Kyle Busch makes his next Automobile Racing Club of America start at Pocono Raceway later this month, six weeks will have passed since he last raced the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
But the break has been anything but a vacation for Busch, an 18-year-old Las Vegas native who is running a limited scheduled of ARCA and NASCAR Busch Series events this year for Hendrick before moving to the Busch Series full time next season.
Busch has been kept busy with a full schedule of testing, competing in Legends Cars races in the Summer Shootout Series at Lowe's Motor Speedway near Charlotte, N.C., and fulfilling sponsorship obligations -- including filming television commercials -- for ditech.com.
"It's not hard at all," Busch said of the gap between races. "We go test at these racetracks that we've been running at and every time that we do go to a racetrack, we've already got a test under our belt so it's pretty nice to go out there and be able to get some experience at the racetracks and learn the setup that we need to do to be able to go fast.
"We're being out of the seat on a competitive basis every week but we're able to take the car back to the shop, re-evaluate it and see what we need to make for changes to go back to that racetrack and run well instead of being able to run every week and sometimes having to struggle or whatever to find the right setup."
Busch will be mixing business with pleasure tonight when he returns to race a Super Late Model and Legends Car during The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway's "Night of Fire" racing card.
"I was going to come out there and spend (the Fourth of July) with my mom and grandma and bring my dad with me because we haven't been out there in the past two months," said Busch, who now lives in North Carolina. "I've been helping (local Legends Car racer) Alex Haase out all year and he's been doing pretty good and I asked his dad (Greg) if I could drive his backup car and they said 'Sure, why not?'
"(Track publicist) Jeff Motley found out that I was coming back to run a Legends Car and we got together and we tried to figure out a way to get a Late Model and we found it. I got Ricky Cobb, who is giving me a great opportunity here, sponsoring the racecar -- his dad's racecar. I'm just coming back to have a great time and do the best we can."
Busch, a two-time Legends Car track champion at LVMS, moved from Roush Racing -- for whom older brother Kurt races in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series -- to Hendrick Motorsports, in part, to get out from under his brother's shadow and make a name for himself. That strategy appears to be working.
Busch won his first two ARCA races for Hendrick and appeared to have the car to beat in two others until he fell victim to tire problems. In his first Busch Series start, at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Busch led twice late in the race before finishing second to Winston Cup regular Matt Kenseth.
"Everything has been clicking along just great and I think that the results have been coming the way that we've been expecting," Busch said. "If we hadn't had those two tire issues (in the ARCA races), I think we probably could be talking about four wins in four starts in the ARCA series and a second in the Busch Series.
"But the success that we've been having at Hendrick Motorsports with ditech, the great sponsor that they are, everything's been going really well and I'm happy to be here."
Mike Skinner was fired last month as driver of the Kodak-sponsored car and team owner Larry McClure is continuing his search for a full-time replacement for Skinner. Road-course specialist Johnny Miller drove the car to a 24th-place finish at Infineon Raceway two weeks ago.
Finch, who is running a partial Winston Cup schedule this season, is fielding the No. 09 Dodge with sponsorship from Miccosukee Gaming and Resorts. Mike Wallace, who is filling in for injured Jerry Nadeau, drove the car to a ninth-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500.
Team owner Ed Evans cited the team's sub-par performance this season as the reason for LaJoie's dismissal. LaJoie was 16th in points and had four top-10 finishes in 17 races. Evans said he intends to try several different drivers in the No. 7 car during the next several races.
Tickets in the new section, which will overlook the track between Turn 4 and the start/finish line, are priced at $333 each and include admission to Pole Day, the Nextel Cup and Busch Series races in the spring and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race in the fall. Earnhardt Terrace ticket holders will have the opportunity to renew their seats each year.
Tickets can be purchased in person at the LVMS ticket office or by calling 644-4444.
Mitch Evans, in the U-3 Master Tire, won the season opener on the Ohio River. It marked the first victory by a piston-powered Unlimited Hydroplane since Evans accomplished the feat in 1989.
Miss Budweiser, continuing in the series despite the death of longtime owner Bernie Little in April, suffered its first mechanical failure in seven years when it broke a propeller shaft in the final heat race. Dave Villwock piloted the craft to a fifth-place finish in the final.
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