Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Kyle Busch not looking forward to Talladega race

Tuesday, April 20, 2004 | 9:47 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.

Kyle Busch had a good run in his first restrictor-plate race this season until he was forced to drop out with an overheating problem in the NASCAR Busch Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway.

But Busch, who was running seventh at Daytona when his No.5 Lowe's Chevrolet boiled over, said he isn't looking forward to Saturday's Busch Series race at Talladega Superspeedway -- the track on the NASCAR circuit where the horsepower-sapping restrictor plates are mandated.

"No, not really," Busch said when asked if he enjoyed restrictor-plate racing. "To me, there's no driver involved -- it's just the car. It does come down to the driver during the race, but all you do is hold the pedal to the floor, so you're just depending on the draft to suck you forward and try to pass cars.

"It's not really a driver's race, it's a car's race."

As an 18-year-old rookie in the series, Busch also found little drafting help from the veteran drivers at Daytona. Although he has posted four top-10 finishes in seven races this season, Busch said he doesn't expect to get help from the veterans in Saturday's race.

"It's very frustrating because you know your capabilities but everybody else doesn't really trust your capabilities," Busch said. "All the (Nextel) Cup guys, they don't really want to play around and draft with the rookie Busch guys.

"The respect level you gain at intermediate-length tracks definitely helps you at intermediate tracks, but the respect you gain on superspeedways only sticks to the superspeedways. I think that how (the veteran drivers) race around you and how they race with you on superspeedways dictates whether or not they're going to draft with you."

As a result, Busch said, he would go back to being an untested rookie at Talladega, in the eyes of more experienced drivers.

"We do have the Daytona race under our belt with those guys and we were able to run up front, so that helps," he said. "We didn't get ourselves in any bad situations and we didn't get caught up in anything. We were able to miss a few of the big wrecks, so that hopefully showed that not only can I hang with some of the big dogs but when they did hang me out to dry, I was able to find my way back to the front."

After a 24th-place finish at Daytona, Busch rebounded with a seventh-place effort at North Carolina Speedway and has posted three consecutive top-10 finishes going into this weekend. Busch is third in the series' points standings, 61 points behind leader Michael Waltrip and 53 points behind second-place David Green.

Although Saturday's Aaron's 312 will mark Busch's first Busch Series start at Talladega, he did compete in an ARCA race on the 2.66-mile oval last season. Busch sat on the pole for the race but finished 28th after getting caught up in a multi-car accident midway through the race.

Ray moved into the Super Late Model points lead with his victory. Kike Cofer, who won the season opener back in March, trails Ray by two points and Alderman is third, 10 points behind Ray.

Other winners Saturday night: Doug Hamm (Late Model); Tom Youmans (Chargers); Tom Lovelady (Pro/Master Legends Cars); Dustin Ash (Semi-Pro Legends Cars); Dave Green (Thunder Roadsters); Austin Murphy (Bandolero Cars); and Rick Lamb (Bullring Bombers).

The NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series continues Saturday night with racing in Super Late Model, Chargers, IMCA Modifieds, Legends Cars, Thunder Roadsters and Bandolero Cars divisions.