NASCAR 2004: Revved up in Vegas

Thursday, March 4, 2004 | 10:35 a.m.

Las Vegas has produced professional football, baseball, basketball and tennis players and Olympic medalists, so it should come as no surprise that the valley eventually would spawn a top-flight auto racer.

But three?

When the green flag drops on the seventh annual UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 NASCAR Nextel Cup race Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the likelihood is good that three Las Vegas natives -- Kurt Busch, Brendan Gaughan and Kyle Busch -- will be among the field of 43 drivers.

Kurt Busch and Brendan Gaughan compete fulltime in the Nextel Cup Series while Kyle Busch is a rookie in the NASCAR Busch Series and will attempt to make his Nextel Cup Series debut on Sunday.

While Kurt and Kyle Busch took the normal route to NASCAR's top ranks, via the local short track, Gaughan began his racing career in the deserts of Southern Nevada and Mexico. A second-generation off-road racer, Gaughan moved from the dirt to the pavement in 1999 and spent three seasons in the Winston West Series before moving to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2002.

After winning six truck races and being in the championship lead until the final race of the 2003 season, Gaughan was hired by Penske-Jasper Racing in December to drive the No. 77 Kodak Dodge in the Nextel Cup Series.

Kurt Busch, 25, followed in the footsteps of his father, Tom, an accomplished local short-track racer. After winning championships in Dwarf Cars, Legends Cars and Hobby Stocks in Las Vegas and Pahrump, Busch headed to the University of Arizona in 1997 to pursue a degree in pharmacy. It didn't take him long to realize that his heart was in racing and not in textbooks.

"It started out as family fun on Saturday night and I took the road of going to school and thinking that a college education would pay for some part-time racing," Bush recalled. "During that time of going to school, I thought racing a car for a living would be much more fun.

hen I was 18 and in college, wandering around and trying to find out which way life was supposed to go, that was probably the age that I decided I wanted to be a racecar driver -- whether I knew I could handle it or not."

Busch landed a NASCAR Southwest Series ride for local businessman Craig Keough, was Rookie of the Year in 1998 and won the series championship in 1999. While driving in the Southwest Series, Busch caught the eye of NASCAR team owner Jack Roush and was offered a ride in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2000.

Busch set a rookie record by winning four truck races and finished second in the championship.

By the end of the year, Roush had tabbed Busch to drive his No. 97 Ford in seven races in what was then the Winston Cup Series. The following year, Busch made the jump to the Cup Series.

Kyle Busch, 18, credits his older brother for helping open the door for local racers who aspire to drive in one of NASCAR's three national touring series.

"I think Kurt was the one that opened up all the doors, mainly because he got into Southwest Tour and was doing really well and that team was based out of Las Vegas, too," Kyle Busch said. "He opened up a lot of doors and opened up a lot of people's eyes about more of the West Coast and Vegas guys as well.

"Everybody asked if he had a younger brother. Everybody wanted to know what my status was and what I was doing and how well I was doing so they would kind of be looking at me."

Like his older brother, Kyle excelled in the Dwarf and Legends Cars ranks at LVMS before he was picked by Roush to compete in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2001. Busch competed in six truck races as a 16-year-old until NASCAR mandated that all drivers in its touring series be at least 18 years old.

He spent the 2002 season running in the American Speed Association series and then joined Hendrick Motorsports last year when he turned 18.

Gaughan, 28, said Busch's success and improvements made at the local short track -- The Bullring -- made it easier for local racers to get noticed.

"I think that there is talent all over the country," Gaughan said. "The problem with the West Coast is that nobody ever noticed it because there were no great racing teams on the West Coast for a long time. It took a long time to get Greg Biffle, Ron Hornaday, and Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch out to this level.

"The Las Vegas Motor Speedway really facilitates and helps brings (drivers) out because of The Bullring and now there are more racetracks (on the West Coast). There are nice tracks out there now that are helping really get some West Coast guys to the front."

While all three said they were excited about the prospect of three Las Vegas-born drivers competing in this weekend's Nextel Cup race at LVMS, each is approaching the race a little differently.

Kurt Busch, in his fourth full season on the circuit, has said he ranks the Las Vegas Cup race "right along with Daytona and (the Brickyard 400 at) Indianapolis Motor Speedway."

"It's fun to come here because you're familiar with the surroundings and you saw the place get built from the ground up," Busch said. "I was racing on the three-eighths-mile (track), just on the backside of the front straightaway and it's a comfortable place and I'd like to do well here.

"We have done well here but we've never posted the results. It would be nice to finish with a top-10 finish."

Gaughan, who won the Craftsman Truck Series race at LVMS last September, said he is attempting to guard against trying too hard to do well in front of the hometown fans.

"I think me and (crew chief) Shane Wilson did that the first few years in the Craftsman Truck Series and the Winston West Series," Gaughan said. "Every time we came to Vegas -- I like pressure, but there's a point where you over analyze, you over engineer and get too pumped up (and) we hurt ourselves a couple of times.

"It's not the home race for the Penske-Jasper team; this is not where they are from. It's just where Shane Wilson and I are from. The guys will do a normal job -- and their normal job is awesome -- and we're going to have a good Dodge out there. Me and Shane are just going to go out there and ... know it's a racetrack we'd like to win at and know how to win at and just do it right."

Kyle Busch admitted that the thought of making his Nextel Cup debut at his hometown track was overwhelming, but said he was trying to approach it as "just another race."

"To have an opportunity to run seven Nextel Cup races (this year) is like, 'wow,' and to run the first one here at Vegas ... is pretty amazing," Busch said.

"I didn't think we'd ever make a debut until probably 2005.

"It's just another race and another racetrack so we're going to go out there just like we would any other place and try to do the best we can. Of course, we've got the family and friends here so we'd like to make a good showing for all of them."