Thursday, July 5, 2007 | 7:31 a.m.
Kyle Busch knows the drill.
Just as he had to start his driving career on the short tracks in and around his native Las Vegas before making it to the top level of his sport, Busch is taking the same approach as a car owner.
Busch, 22 and a four-race winner in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series, started Kyle Busch Motorsports in part to help advance the career of longtime family friend Alex Haase. In the past couple of years, Haase, now 17, has driven Legends Cars and Super Late Model stock cars for KBM , and Busch is sponsoring Haase's ride in the regional NASCAR Grand National Division, West Series.
"It's kind of a stepping stone," Busch said of his budding race team. "You can step up through the ranks of being a driver and I believe you step up through the ranks of being an owner."
Busch said he is about to break ground on a race shop in Mooresville, N.C. , that will be big enough to house a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team. But he said he is not planning to field a truck in the series next season and denied published reports that he is buying into an existing Truck Series team.
"Things have been said and things have been talked about, but nothing is in the forecast for any of that - maybe some day," he said. "Whether I turn into a Kevin Harvick Inc . or a Hendrick (Motorsports) or a Joe Gibbs Racing facility, I don't really know. We'll just kind of see."
In the meantime, Busch said , he is keeping his eye open for other undiscovered racing talent. Although he said he liked the idea of using his team to give West Coast racers an opportunity to progress up the NASCAR ladder, he said logistics likely would make that difficult because his team is based in North Carolina.
Busch said he likes what he has seen out of Haase this season and would like to continue helping the young driver. After eight West Series races, Haase was ninth in points and had posted four top-10 finishes, including a career-best fourth place last weekend in Roseburg, Ore.
"For the races that I've seen on TV and I've watched and the way that he's raced, he's done a really good job," Busch said.
"I've just got to thank him for everything he's done so far," Haase said. "I've watched Kyle come up through the ranks ... and hopefully we can kind of get the same deal going."
Bad pit stop
Rod Fuller of Las Vegas left last weekend's NHRA race in Norwalk, Ohio, with a 98-point lead in the Top Fuel standings and a very sore knee.
"I did something stupid before the second round" of Sunday's eliminations, he said. "I had to use the bathroom before our race and I jumped a 6-foot fence and when I landed, I heard a loud pop in my left knee."
Fuller aggravated the knee he had injured while playing volleyball in February in Hawaii, but continued to race and reached his third final round of the season, where he lost to Tony Schumacher.
"I'm a little upset with myself," he said of the injury. "I just have to suck it up and race."
The NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series is in Bristol, Tenn., this weekend for the O'Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals.
On a roll
Formula One rookie driver Lewis Hamilton will receive a hero's reception this weekend when he returns home for this weekend's British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
Hamilton, who this season became the first black driver to win a Formula One Grand Prix, has two victories and eight podium finishes in eight races.
"I keep saying that I didn't even expect to finish on the podium in my first race, let alone eight races in the season," he said, "so I am very happy with the job that I have done and the job that the team has done."
Hamilton, 22, leads the driver's championship by 14 points over McLaren-Mercedes teammate and reigning two-time world champion Fernando Alonso.
3
Career victories for Michael Waltrip at Daytona International Speedway, site of Saturday's Pepsi 400
3
Number of Nextel Cup races this season (out of 17) for which Waltrip has qualified
"The absolutely only good thing that came from it was the E.T. (elapsed time), which would have been a lot better had the car not blown apart."
NHRA Funny Car driver Del Worsham, who turned in a 4.873-second qualifying run despite his car exploding as it neared the finish line last Saturday in Norwalk, Ohio. Worsham was not hurt in the incident.
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