Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Kyle Busch to skip Nextel Open for Busch race

Tuesday, May 18, 2004 | 9:40 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.

Hendrick Motorsports has withdrawn its entry in Saturday's Nextel Open for Las Vegas native Kyle Busch so he can focus on Sunday's NASCAR Busch Series race at Nazareth Speedway, the team announced Monday.

Busch, who earned his first career Busch Series victory Friday night at Richmond International Raceway, is the Busch Series points leader after 11 races.

Instead of running the No. 84 CarQuest Chevrolet in this weekend's all-star events at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C., Busch will spend the weekend in Nazareth, Pa., and will attempt to make his next NASCAR Nextel Cup start in the May 30 Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

The team also announced Monday that Busch would attempt to qualify for an additional Nextel Cup race this season -- the Oct. 10 Banquet 400 at Kansas Speedway.

Busch has made one Nextel Cup start in two attempts this season. He made his Cup debut at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 7 but completed only 11 laps before parking the car with extensive damage after scraping the wall early in the race. Busch failed to qualify for the Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway in April.

In winning his first career Busch Series race Friday night at Richmond, Busch became the first Raybestos Rookie to win a Busch race from the pole since the program's inception in 1989.

At 19, Busch also became the youngest driver to win a race at Richmond. He has been the highest-finishing rookie in 10 of 11 races this season and holds a commanding lead over Paul Menard in the Rookie of the Year standings.

Orleans Racing general manager Fritz Kroyer said Charlie Wilson would serve as the interim crew chief until a replacement for Allen could be found. Wilson is the crew chief on the Orleans Racing Dodge, driven by Scott Lynch, in the NASCAR West Series.

"Johnny Allen was a popular member of the team," Kroyer said in a prepared statement. "Unfortunately, we have a big puzzle and all of the pieces need to fit. Johnny may be the right fit for another team but we are still searching for the right fit for our team.

"Once we have the crew chief piece of the puzzle in place, we should be in good shape. We have a great group of guys on the team and Steve Park is doing an outstanding job behind the wheel; we have extreme confidence in his ability. If I had a field of drivers to choose from tomorrow, I would still choose Steve Park."

Kroyer said he hoped to have a replacement for Allen named by the June 11 Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.

"I can't get a break," Park said after the race. "These guys have been working really hard at giving us good racetrucks and we just keep getting involved in stuff on the racetrack."

Park's race ended with 20 laps remaining when Bill Lester spun on the backstretch and was hit by Joe Aramendia and Chase Montgomery. Park and Charlie Bradberry also were involved in the wreck's aftermath.

"Guys were just racing too hard," Park said of the incident. "It's just the lapped cars running up on the inside. This place is tough to pass (and) when you've got guys that are a few laps down starting up in the front on the inside, it just causes a melee."

Park, whose best finish in four races this season is 12th, slipped one spot, to 22nd, in the NCTS standings. The series resumes Friday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Other winners Saturday night were Lee Hatch (ASA Speed Trucks), Eric Bauer (IMCA Modifieds), Tom Youmans (Chargers), Rick Rogas (Pro/Master Legends Cars), Dustin Ash (Semi-Pro Legends Cars), Austin Murphy (Bandolero Cars) and Dave Green (Thunder Roadsters).