Associated Press
LOUDON, N.H.— Kyle Busch can see the time when his own team thrives without him behind the wheel.
That time is not now — not with sponsors clamoring to sticker his truck with ads. Busch’s success drives the corporate dollars that fill the Kyle Busch Motorsports coffers, almost forcing him out on the track most weeks to keep the company running.
“They want the guaranteed chance to go to Victory Lane,” Busch said.
Busch is about as close as it gets to a guaranteed win in the Trucks Series. His latest victory was a romp, as he led all but 10 laps in one of the more dominating performances this season in the Trucks Series to win the race Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
“It was fun for us,” Busch said, “maybe not for others.”
Busch started from the pole and was never threatened en route to his 30th career victory in the series. He led 165 of the 175 laps and won for the sixth time this season.
Busch has 18 victories this season in Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Trucks.
Oh, and Busch believed he can duplicate the dominance on Sunday in the Sprint Cup series.
“A lot of the feel that I’ve been looking for in my Cup car I felt this weekend in my truck,” Busch said. “We made a lot of changes to my Cup car over the weekend this weekend. We’re vastly different than we’ve ever run here in the past. I’m hoping it doesn’t bite us, but I can’t see us going in the wrong direction.”
Austin Dillon was second and claimed the lead in the points standings. He leads James Buescher by two points and has the championship in sight as the season winds down. Dillon chewed up some seconds on Busch’s lead over the final laps, but it was way too late to end up in Victory Lane.
“He had such a big lead there at the end,” Dillon said. “We could make big chunks of time out of his lead when he got in traffic and that was the only time we could gain on him. I wish we could have come out closer to him on pit road.”
Dillon wasn’t close on pit road and he couldn’t catch him at the finish line. That spot was reserved for Busch.
“The truck was awesome today,” Busch said.
Kevin Harvick, Ron Hornaday and Johnny Sauter rounded out the top five. Matt Crafton was sixth and only six drivers finished on the lead lap.
It was that kind of race, leaving little for Busch to break down. He stormed to the lead and stayed there under green to prove why he’s one of the top drivers in any form of racing.
So talk turned to the future of Kyle Busch Motorsports. Busch said there are plans to expand the operation in the Trucks Series and maybe start a Nationwide team. Of course, it all depends on whether Busch can generate the sponsors needed to keep that many entries afloat.
“We’d like to move into two full time trucks at least and we’ll see what happens from there,” Busch said.
Once of those future plans could see Busch surrendering his ride. Busch, who won his 104th career NASCAR race, set 200 victories as a goal and stepping away from the Trucks Series could curtail that number.
“We’ve got to make sure that we can live and strive off of somebody besides myself,” Busch said. “We’re working towards that and we’re trying really, really hard.”
The Associated Press
09/24/11 18:17