Tuesday, February 25, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

RUNNER-UP TWICE IN WINSTON CUP: Busch heads home on a roll

Driver to race in Las Vegas as points leader

By JEFF WOLF
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Kurt Busch, shown doing a burnout after winning the NAPA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in last season's Winston Cup finale, is the circuit's points leader after runner-up finishes this season at Daytona Beach, Fla., and Rockingham, N.C. AP Photo

Of the drivers competing in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series, all but one would have loved to start the year with two second-place finishes.

Kurt Busch apparently perceives runners-up as the best of the race losers.

After twice taking second, including Sunday in Rockingham, N.C., Busch will return to his hometown this week as the points leader in America's most prestigious racing series.

"I would have loved to have gotten off to victory lane so early in the year, but finishing second isn't too bad," Busch said in Sunday's post-race media conference in Rockingham minutes after veteran Dale Jarrett outfought him for the victory.

"That gathered up a lot of points for us and, lo and behold, we're the points leader so we'll just roll into Vegas," Busch said. "The confidence is there and we'll just continue rolling."

No driver has been more successful than Busch over the past seven Cup races, posting top-six finishes in all of them and winning three of the last five events in 2002.

He's listed by Station Casinos as a 7-1 co-favorite with Ryan Newman and reigning Cup champion Tony Stewart to win Sunday's UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 on the 1.5-mile Las Vegas tri-oval.

However, the 24-year-old Busch hasn't been able to discover success in the Cup series on his home track. He finished 11th in 2001 and 20th last year.

But the past two years he didn't arrive home on such a torrid pace.

"We're just two races (into the season)," he said. "I'd like to say that we're a championship contender with the way we ended last year, and we'll just try to keep our momentum rolling forward."

• BUSCH SERIES -- At Rockingham, N.C., Jamie McMurray led all but five of 197 laps Monday to run away with the rain-delayed Busch Series race at North Carolina Speedway.

McMurray started second, passed pole sitter David Green on the backstretch of the first lap and steadily pulled away from the field to win by almost 20 car lengths.

• SKYDIVERS -- Three of four military skydivers have been released from hospitals where they had been treated for injuries sustained Sunday during pre-race activities at the Cup race in Rockingham, N.C.

Col. Leonard H. Kiser, a senior Army National Guard adviser for the Army's Special Operations Command, was in good condition Monday at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte.

Four other jumpers from the Army Special Operations Command Parachute team were uninjured during their low-altitude jumps when winds of up to 40 mph blew the parachutists off their landing target on the track. The injured jumpers bounced off tractor-trailers and landed hard on the track's asphalt.

• OUTLAWS -- Danny Lasoski grabbed a share of the World of Outlaws Series points lead Saturday night by winning the feature race at Perris Auto Speedway in Southern California.

Lasoski and the Outlaws will race Friday and Saturday nights at Las Vegas Motor Speedway's Dirt Track in the $112,145 J.D. Byrider Nationals.

• SUPERCROSS -- Two-time defending Supercross season champion Ricky Carmichael, of Havana, Fla., won his fifth 250cc race of the season at the Georgia Dome on Saturday night in front of 63,749 fans.