Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Roush regrets losing other Busch

Tuesday, March 4, 2003 | 10:10 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.

It is obvious that NASCAR team owner Jack Roush isn't too pleased that young Las Vegas driver Kyle Busch bolted the Roush Racing stable last month for Hendrick Motorsports.

Roush, who fields the No. 97 Ford Taurus for Busch's older brother Kurt, was asked following Sunday's UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to give his thoughts on the younger Busch's defection to the rival team.

"He's 17 years old and he's not nearly done yet, so there are a lot of broken cars and broken hearts and emotions that will run wild before he'll mature into a racecar driver that can realize his potential and satisfy all the folks around him for their investments," Roush said of Busch. "I'm not totally unhappy about missing that."

At the age of 16, Kyle Busch drove in six NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races for Roush in 2001 before NASCAR instituted a minimum-age requirement of 18 for drivers in its touring series. Last summer, Busch raced in the American Speed Association with support from Roush Racing and had been expected to sign a contract to drive for the team in the NCTS after he turned 18 on May 2.

But Busch, reportedly unhappy that Roush wanted to lock him into a long-term contract, elected to move to Hendrick Motorsports, where he will compete in selected NASCAR Busch Series and Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) races this season to prepare for a full-time Busch Series campaign in 2004. Busch told the Sun last month that he would sign a two-year deal, with a two-year option, with Hendrick and that was what he was looking for with Roush.

Roush said he could have kept Busch with his team but indicated that was not what the driver wanted.

"I suspect that had we felt strongly about wanting to keep him that there was an opportunity for a negotiation there and that we could run the dollars up and maybe stopped (him from leaving)," Roush said.

"But we've got a full complement of great drivers with great futures and I just really work hard with all the folks that are committed to us, that want to be here to make their careers as successful as they can be and it was not clear that Kyle wanted to be here going down the road."

Busch, who slipped from first to sixth in points with a 38th-place finish Sunday in Las Vegas, won the fall race at Atlanta last year and took 11th in the spring race. He also had a 10th-place finish there in his rookie season in 2001.

McLaughlin raced at Daytona and attempted the Las Vegas race in his own equipment and with donations from fans across the company. For the race in Las Vegas, McLaughlin had a one-race sponsorship from the Flamingo Las Vegas hotel-casino.

"I will always owe a huge debt of gratitude to the people that helped us make the Daytona race a reality," McLaughlin said. "However, I have realized we can't go on racing this way and attempting to find funding for selected races without a true race team.

"I have had a small group of people that have worked alongside me the last 45 days preparing these cars but I realize they need to move forward and find a home with a full-time racing team. They have been incredible and I hope to work with them again in the future. I am hoping for another opportunity to race for a competitive, well-funded team in the very near future."