Kyle Busch eyes turnaround

The beginning of NASCAR's Sprint Cup and Nationwide seasons hasn't been enjoyable for Kyle Busch, so he was thrilled to have some fun Wednesday.

He spent much of the day with first-grader A.J. Bulow, who with his dad designed the paint scheme for Busch's No. 18 Cup car, beating out more than 26,000 entries.

Busch flew to San Jose, Calif., to visit Bulow's school and then take him to Dave & Buster's restaurant, where they played video games.

"I haven't been to Dave & Buster's in a long time, so I used the whole (game) card," Busch said on his way to the airport, where he flew to Southern California for this weekend's races in Fontana.

That's a good racetrack for the Las Vegas native, who has won in both series there. Busch needs a boost after slow starts in his Cup and Nationwide rides.

His Toyota Cup car finished sixth in Phoenix, but wasn't any higher than 17th in any of the other three races.

"We haven't had the season we wanted," Busch said. "We definitely need to turn it around and get back on track."

Busch owns his Nationwide Toyota, which has finished outside the top 10 in every race of its debut season.

"We're way behind," he said. "The fact of the matter is we've been terrible every race. We've got to keep at it. It's a process. Hopefully, we can turn that around in California."

■ NASCAR TO THE MINT -- NASCAR veteran Robby Gordon will compete in The Mint 400 on Saturday in Jean.

■ SIGN THEM UP -- Many NHRA drivers will participate in a free autograph session at 6 p.m. Thursday on the Brooklyn Bridge outside New York-New York. It's part of the lead-up to the SummitRacing.com Nationals at Las Vegas Motor Speedway's The Strip the following weekend.

The drivers scheduled to attend: Khalid alBalooshi, Greg Anderson, Jeff Arend, Jack Beckman, Brandon Bernstein, Bob Bode, Roger Brogdon, Antron Brown, Jon Capps, Ron Capps, Jeg Coughlin Jr., Alexis Dejoria, Erica Enders, Johnny Gray, Shane Gray, David Grubnic, Terry Haddock, Matt Hagan, Ronnie Humphrey, Allen Johnson, Sean Langdon, Shawn Langdon, Jason Line, Morgan Lucas, Spencer Massey, Terry McMillen, Larry Morgan, Mike Neff, Tony Schumacher, Bob Tasca III, Steve Torrence, Tim Wilkerson and T.J. Zizzo.

■ DRAG RACES RESCHEDULED -- The second half of the Short Line Express Market Jr. Dragster race, which was called off Saturday because of rain and wind, will resume June 3 at LVMS's The Strip.

Peyton Januik of Las Vegas and Chad Webber of Kingman, Ariz., won the Thunder and Lightning divisions, respectively, in the doubleheader's first half.

■ SUPERCROSS SELLOUT -- The Monster Energy Supercross, which decides the series championship, at Sam Boyd Stadium on May 5 has sold out.

It's the earliest sellout in the sport's 38-year history.

Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914. Follow him on Twitter: @markanderson65.