Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Repeat after me

Friday, Jan. 14, 2005 | 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.

No driver in the NASCAR Cup Series has been able to repeat as series champion since Jeff Gordon in 1997 and 1998 -- a fact not overlooked by reigning Nextel Cup champion Kurt Busch.

"We definitely have the cards stacked against us," Busch, a Las Vegas native, said this week as preseason testing began at Daytona International Speedway. "We're the ones that everybody is going to be shooting at every week and that's one thing that will test our team's ability to rise above that and to see how we handle some of that pressure."

Busch, who won the 2004 Nextel Cup championship by 8 points over Jimmie Johnson in a battle that went down to the final lap of the final race, said he believes Johnson's team may have fallen victim to that pressure during the 10-race "Chase for the Nextel Cup."

"One thing that's good about being a favorite is that the attention is always around you," Busch said. "You've got that same buzz and that same vibe all year. What I saw a little bit with the (Johnson's team) is it seemed as if they were the favorites; they were the ones that led the stretch going into the chase and they may have burned themselves out with having all of that extra attention.

"For us, we slid in under the radar."

Although he will be considered one of the favorites to win this year's championship, Busch said he and his Roush Racing teammates would work hard to approach the 26-race "regular season" and 10-race "playoff" in the same manner they did in 2004.

"We attacked the last 10 races with a full stretch of tests," Busch said of the 2004 season. "We tested nine out of the 10 (tracks in the final 10 races), with some of them mixed in during the final 10 (races) and we just kind of worked at our own program and worked at our own pace. If we're looked at as a favorite, we're still going to have that same mentality to work at our pace and to not get too excited.

"I know I'm going to get pulled in a few different directions with a few more requirements and things to do outside the racetrack, and that's what's already happened. There are going to be different people tugging at you and different things hitting you and you just have to roll with the punches. If you're a favorite, you're a favorite. If you're not, it's something that it almost feels better not to be one."

Under the new system, all but one provisional starting position will be eliminated. Starting positions 1 through 42 at each race still will be determined by qualifying speed, but the highest-ranking 35 drivers (as determined by owner points) will be assured a spot in the field -- provided they have made a qualifying run. The remaining seven positions will be determined based on qualifying speed among the car owners not in the top 35 in points.

NASCAR is keeping the champion's provisional for the 43rd and final starting position. If a current or past series champion does not the final starting spot, it will be assigned to the next eligible car owner based on qualifying results.

The 2004 NASCAR Nextel Cup owners points will be used to determine the top 35 through the first five races this season. From the sixth race on, the current owners points will be used to determine the top 35 at each race.

The test, which runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days, will be open to the public, free of charge.

After the Nextel Cup drivers leave LVMS, at least 14 NASCAR Busch Series drivers are scheduled to test Feb. 2-3 at the speedway. Among the drivers who have committed to test here are reigning series champion Martin Truex Jr. and former Champ Car driver Michel Jourdain Jr.

Spectator gates open and testing begins at 8 a.m. each day. A complete schedule and ticket prices can be found at www.lvms.com.

Labonte's first race will be in late February at California Speedway.

Marty and Travis Coyne of El Centro, Calif., won the Big Trucks division with a leap of 157 feet and earned the $3,000 first prize. Alan Pflueger of Honolulu took second with a leap of 156 feet, 6 inches.

In the Small Trucks division, Shawn Wanzek of Lake Havasu City took the $3,000 winner's check with a leap of 135 feet. B.J. Richardson and John Gaughan of Las Vegas won the Large CC Open Wheel division (155 feet) and Las Vegas' Rob MacCachren tied Randy Jones of Simi Valley, Calif., in the Small CC Open Wheel division with identical leaps of 96 feet, 6 inches.

Racing in 16 Pro and two Sportsman classes begins at 7 a.m. Saturday and Sunday for the season-opening race of the five-event SCORE Desert Series. An event-record field of more than 230 entries is expected for the two-day timed event.

Gary Dircks (Trophy Truck) and Troy Herbst of Las Vegas (Class 1) are the defending race winners in the series' featured classes while MacCachren last year earned victories in both Class 1-2/1600 and SCORE Lite and finished second in Trophy Truck with co-driver Gus Vildosola.

MacCachren again is competing in three separate classes this weekend in Laughlin.

CBS will televise four races and NBC will carry three events. Speed Channel will televise four races live and show three races, including the Las Vegas event, on a tape-delayed, next-day basis.