Q+A KYLE BUSCH

Tuesday, March 7, 2006 | 11:26 a.m.

Kyle Busch returned home last March for the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 with eight NASCAR Nextel Cup starts and a top finish of 23rd place.

His second-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway proved to be a harbinger for Busch, who went on to post two Cup victories, 12 other top-10 finishes and more than $4.7 million in earnings in 2005. Busch, a Durango High School graduate, also won the series' Rookie of the Year award.

In Las Vegas this week for the ninth running of the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 on Sunday, Busch shared his thoughts on last year's race and his rookie season during a preseason test session at the speedway.

You finished second here last year. How important was this race to the momentum that you built throughout the season?

Coming to Vegas, my hometown, of course it's always a special race. You always want to do well and go out there, if you can, and win; and if not, do the best you can. Obviously, you also want to do that any other place, but especially here in Vegas. It was a good time for us, me finishing second and then (older brother) Kurt was in third and my teammate, Jimmie (Johnson), ended up winning the race. We didn't start off too well, but (crew chief) Alan (Gustafson) and all of the guys just kept digging on the car and made it a lot better and so we were able to finish second.

How much more comfortable do you feel here in your second go around, as opposed to your rookie season?

There's a little bit more of a comfort level that's been built up so far, but this is actually my third trip here; I ran here in the No. 84 CarQuest car a couple years ago and that wasn't a very good venture for us, but last year was. Coming back this year, I've definitely got a lot more experience under my belt. Being able to run the full season last year in the Nextel Cup Series and do fairly well - end up 20th in points and all that kind of stuff.

But to be able to come back out here to Vegas with the experience I have now, it makes it a little bit easier to try to do just a little bit better and, of course, being able to have a better feel for the race car.

You finished second and your brother finished third last year. Are there any little bragging rights going on and any little rivalry coming up here?

Not really, no. We always try to go out there and beat each other anyways, but especially here in our hometown, it's a lot more fun. Coming out of here last year, I think Kurt had the quote that him helping me was all over, but it still goes on today. We talk to each other, and we get a lot of help from each other.

Him moving over to the new stable over there at Penske, he's had a great experience so far and he's loving it over there. He's looking more forward to this year, I think, than he has ever, really, and just being able to communicate with his guys.

For myself, being able to go out there this year and being my second year, I think it's Kurt's fifth season (sixth, actually), so he's got a little bit more over me. But hopefully we can outdo him every time we come to Vegas.

What was the greatest improvement that your team made last year?

The biggest thing that we worked on last year was our rear package - things that we were doing in the back of the car. As far as myself, being able to learn the different tracks and things like that, of course that's a big thing that you have to do, to learn what techniques are going to be needed at different facilities. But also, the patience throughout the longer races and things like that, being able to understand that if you have a 20th-place car, you just need to finish 20th with it. There were a couple of races last year where we probably had about a 15th-place car and I'm trying to run 10th or 11th with it and was just out of control, and we end up scraping the wall or something like that.

Those are some things that we need to work on for this year. Just being able to make it to the finish, that's the big prize, not just necessarily winning or finishing up front. Now that I've won my first race, it's a lot easier to go out there and run top five than having to force yourself to win races.

Did winning the race at California Speedway take a lot of pressure off you?

It did. Being able to get out to California and get the win, it means so much because you make it to the Cup level, but the next thing is to win a race. And once you win a race, the next thing is to win more and then, of course, (win) the championship. So being able to go out there last year and win that race in California, not only did it take the monkey off your back, but it just took all amounts of pressure off.

It's a lot easier now this year to just go out and run our own races instead of having to push ourselves so hard to win races.

When did you find out that racing is what you want to do with the rest of your life?

I was probably in the seventh or eighth grade and had just started racing Legends Cars and things like that and I was having a good time doing that kind of stuff. I had friends at school and stuff like that, but I never saw them outside of school (because) I was more worried about racing and doing the things that I wanted to do and really concentrating and putting most of my energy toward that was definitely a priority.

You know, every kid's got to go to school and do what they need to do there to graduate, and I was fortunate enough to learn what I needed to do to graduate a full year early.