Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Defending Nextel Cup champion hopes to make amends with drivers, fans

Friday, Feb. 4, 2005 | 9:42 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.

Kurt Busch would like to use his reign as the 2004 NASCAR Nextel Cup champion to repair the strained relationships he has developed with some drivers and fans during the first four years of his career.

"It takes time for things to change and for people's perceptions to widen," said Busch, a Las Vegas native, while testing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this week. "Each time that I have a chance to rub elbows with a past champion or with another driver in the Cup Series, it's almost like fresh start, but yet it's going to take time for things to change.

"I used to go and pick on the roughest guy in each of the series and now I know I don't need to do that."

Although those close to Busch know him as a likeable, respectful young man with a sharp sense of humor, he has irritated fellow competitors and fans alike with what they view as arrogance.

"I'm definitely an easy-going guy that's well misunderstood," Busch said with a smile.

As he attempts to rebuild his image among his peers, Busch said he won't change the hard-charging driving style that has brought him 11 Cup victories and a series championship in four full seasons on the circuit.

"It's going to be easier to have fun, of course, with the championship, but I still have that same tenacity on the racetrack to go for the win," he said. "That's the drive that everybody has -- Jeff Gordon, a four-time champion, Matt Kenseth, he's a Mid-western, dry sense of humor kind of guy that people are now beginning to know a little bit after his championship."

Above all, Busch said, he won't change who he is just to win over fans or gain the respect of other drivers.

"There are a bunch of different ways one can go with things and I still believe the best way to go about things in life is to be yourself and to have fun," he said.

Busch, 26, said is he looking forward to getting the season started, although he conceded there will be added pressure on him and the No. 97 Roush Racing team this year as the defending series champion. Busch won three races in 2004 and captured the inaugural Nextel Cup championship by 8 points over Jimmie Johnson.

"I know that there's going to be some more pressure added to each of the venues," Busch said. "It's fun already with the different interviews and, of course, the feeling around the garage area; to have some of the NASCAR officials come up and give me that five-letter word -- 'champ.'

"It's really neat, but yet we still have a job to do at the racetrack and we're not going to let that camouflage any of our efforts. It's just a matter of doing the same thing and knowing that with every step that we make, our steps are a bit lighter because we did win the championship last year, but yet everything weighs on our shoulders a bit more heavily to repeat because it is such a tough task to do."

FOND MEMORIES: Shane Hmiel was happy to be back in Las Vegas this week -- and not just because he was posting among the fastest times of all the Busch drivers who tested at LVMS on Wednesday and Thursday.

Hmiel earned his first major NASCAR victory at LVMS last September in the Las Vegas 350 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series when he passed Todd Bodine with two laps remaining in the 146-lap race.

"That was a huge win," Hmiel said Thursday. "It had been so many times I had come close to winning a couple Busch races, I had come close to winning truck races -- and then to finally get that one and to be in such a cool city like Las Vegas ... it was huge.

"It's not every day you go to a truck race and there be 60,000 fans and that just shows you what the fans are like over here on the West Coast."

Although no official times were being kept during the Las Vegas test this week, most teams reported that Hmiel's No. 32 Braun Racing Chevrolet was the quickest of the 22 Busch Series cars that tested here.

"We're actually doing pretty good," Hmiel said. "We were really good out in California (Monday and Tuesday) and to come here and be that good ... we think we're going to be OK."

Hmiel's best finish in two previous Busch Series races at LVMS was 12th in 2003.

DA MATTA RETURNS: Cristiano da Matta, the 2002 Champ Car World Series champion, will return to the series this season and drive for PKV Racing as a teammate to owner/driver Jimmy Vasser.

"We're very excited to have Cristiano on the team," said Vasser, the 1996 series champion and a Las Vegas resident. "I can tell you from experience that the most important thing in the success of a Champ Car team is chemistry and teamwork, and Cristiano has shown in the past that he is certainly capable of being a good teammate and a champion."

Da Matta won 11 races in 79 starts in what was then called CART before leaving the series to drive for Toyota in Formula One. Da Matta was released from the F1 team midway through the 2004 season.

"It's definitely a very good feeling to be able to return ... to a series that always treated me so well," da Matta said. "It's almost like a feeling of coming back home. I think, overall, it's just a great opportunity for me and I'm sure we're going to be able to translate the whole thing into good results in the races."

START YOUR ENGINES: Kurt Busch and Roush Racing teammate Matt Kenseth will be among the high-profile drivers from other series competing in the 43rd running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona sports-car race, which starts Saturday at Daytona International Speedway.

Other Nextel Cup drivers taking part in the endurance race include Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, Jamie McMurray, Casey Mears, Greg Biffle and Terry and Bobby Labonte.

The past three Champ Car World Series champions -- Sebastien Bourdais, Las Vegas resident Paul Tracy and Cristiano da Matta -- also will be racing in the 24 Hours at Daytona, as will nine drivers from the Indy Racing League, including 2004 Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Rice.

MORE TESTING: The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend will host the final NHRA test session of the season prior to next week's season-opening Winternationals in Pomona, Calif.

Among the Top Fuel drivers scheduled to test today through Sunday are David Grubnic, Doug Kalitta, Scott Kalitta, John Smith, Cory McClenathan, Scott Weis, David Baca, Andrew Cowin and Bruce Litton. Funny Car pilots expected to test here include Tony Pedregon, Cruz Pedregon, Gary Densham, Bob Gilbertson, Tim Wilkerson, Jim Head, Tony Bartone, Todd Patton and Jeff Arend.

NHRA Pro test sessions are scheduled for 10 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 3 p.m. and 5:30 today and Saturday and 10 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. Sunday. A complete schedule and admission information can be found at www.lvms.com.

SCHMIDT LANDS SPONSOR: Lucas Oil Products will sponsor one of Sam Schmidt Motorsports' entries this season in the Menards Infiniti Pro Series, the Southern California-based company announced Thursday.

Lucas Oil will serve as the primary sponsor on the car driven by Travis Gregg and also will be an associate sponsor on Schmidt's other cars, to be driven by Chris Festa and Jaime Camara. Team owner Sam Schmidt, a Henderson resident, won the IPS championship last season with driver Thiago Medeiros.

SCORE LEADERS: Thanks to his victory last month in the season-opening SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge, Adam Pfankuch of Carlsbad, Calif., is both the Overall and Class 1/2-1600 points leader after the first round of the 2005 SCORE Desert Series.

Pfankuch leads Kash Vessels (Class 10) by two points in the overall standings while Las Vegan Rob MacCachren (Class 1/2-1600) is six points off the pace in third place heading into the Feb. 25-26 Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 in San Felipe, Mexico.

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