Friday, December 03, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

JOE HAWK: Nextel Cup repeat is attainable goal for Busch

NASCAR Nextel Cup champion Kurt Busch, right, poses with team owner Jack Roush and the championship trophy in Times Square in New York on Thursday. Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 2004 champion Kurt Busch stands atop NASCAR's Nextel Cup Series championship car in New York's Times Square on Thursday. Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK

His prediction didn't shake the foundation of this city like Joe Namath's 1969 boast that the New York Jets would beat the heavily favored Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. But the words of veteran NASCAR team owner Jack Roush this week might send tremors through his sport's passionate fan base of 75 million.

Speaking about Kurt Busch, his aggressive 26-year-old driver who captured the inaugural Nextel Cup Series championship two weeks ago, in just his fourth season on the circuit, Roush boldly predicted: "With the fiercely competitive spirit he's got, he will win again. You can take that to the bank. This will not be Kurt Busch's last championship -- and not his last in this decade."

Encore! Encore!

Encore?

Why not, contends Busch, the Las Vegas native and Durango High School graduate. Why not, say several of Busch's racing brethren -- 2003 points champion Matt Kenseth and 2002 series winner Tony Stewart.

"If he just worries about racing and doesn't make more out of (the 2004 title) than it is, which is a great accomplishment for just one season, I don't see why he can't win another. Maybe more," said Stewart, a six-year veteran of NASCAR's top level and its 1999 Rookie of the Year.

"I don't think there's any more pressure to do the second one as there is the first," added Kenseth, a seven-year driver who won the final Winston Cup points title last year and then finished eighth in the first Nextel Cup Chase for the Championship this season. "Your ultimate job is to win races every week and win a championship, so I'd say it wouldn't be a surprise to see Kurt back up here again."

It would surprise to some who follow the sport, though. At Thursday's media luncheon at Cipriani's restaurant in midtown Manhattan, one media member likened the mercurial Busch to a wild-card team in baseball or football coming from nowhere to win it all.

Roush argues that Busch, who debuted in NASCAR's premier division in 2001 and was runner-up to Kevin Harvick for rookie honors, has that unmistakable something only a select few drivers possess.

"I characterize his driving style as fiercely competitive, to a dimension that I haven't seen among any of the drivers that have worked with me over the years," Roush said. "The thing is, at first he would go out with the idea he would run every lap at the end of the envelope. Now, he's much more calculating and more cold-blooded -- but still fiercely competitive."

If Busch believes there is any pressure in successfully defending a points title -- understand, it hasn't been done since Jeff Gordon did it in 1998 -- he won't admit to it. Or, perhaps, the euphoria of being a newly crowned champion, celebrated here with dinners and, officially, a $5.2 million check for winning the series title, doesn't have him thinking that far ahead quite yet.

Busch will conclude his Champion's Week here tonight, then travel to his hometown to attend a couple of go-rounds of the National Finals Rodeo over the weekend and be honored by dignitaries with a Fremont Street ceremony midafternoon Sunday. From there, he and girlfriend Eva Bryan will vacation in the South Pacific before splitting the upcoming holidays with his family in North Carolina and hers in Virginia.

Maybe after all of that, as he rides the new John Deere tractor he recently purchased, Busch will give some thought to defending his championship -- and whatever pressure might accompany it.

"There's always that role, but I don't believe it's pressure," Busch said. "You can embrace it overly, extensively, and wear yourself out with it, or you can embrace it with dignity and pride and appreciating what you accomplished the year before and then strive for another one."

Then, permitting himself a burp of enthusiasm, he added, "To me, it makes sense to go back for another one."

Stewart advises Busch not to get too caught up with the celebrity status of being NASCAR's reigning Ramses. Kenseth preaches finding time to spend with family and friends in the offseason and not letting the demands of success overtake the importance of staying centered.

With that, Kenseth, also in Roush's stable, tells this story about Busch, a figure who, he says, is so different off the track than what most race fans have seen of him on the track:

"I'm sitting home one night with my wife (Katie) and son (Ross) when Kurt calls and says, `Hey, I'm comin' over.' Now, Kurt never is one to come over. But here he shows up with his girlfriend, and in the back of his truck is this grandfather clock.

"As he starts to unload it, he says, `Hey, I wanted to get you something special to remember your championship by.' He delivered it himself, he brought it inside and then he set up. That was one of the coolest things, to show how unselfish he is and how much he does think of others, to do something like that.

"Totally cool."

Perhaps what goes around will come around.

Perhaps, too, what came around once for Kurt Busch will, as his team owner predicts, come around again.

Joe Hawk is following Kurt Busch around New York City this week and will file columns on him and other members of Nextel Cup's 2004 Chase for the Championship through Saturday. Hawk can be reached at 387-2912 or jhawk@reviewjournal.com.