KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kyle Busch took one lap around the go-kart track Wednesday at Sadler s Indoor Racing in Olathe, Kan., and called it a day.
Hadn't he done enough for one week?
Busch was still in the afterglow of making racing history by becoming the first driver to win all three of NASCAR's touring series — Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Trucks — in one week at Bristol, Tenn., where he churned 956 laps, leading 514 of them.
"For me to be the first one to do that, and hopefully for a while the only one to do it in NASCAR ..." Busch said while in Kansas City for the day. "It's been something I've been trying to do and wanting to do since I got in NASCAR.
"When you look across the board, you beat 35 other trucks and 42 other Nationwide cars and 42 other Cup cars ... that's an awful lot of competitors you had to beat."
Such a feat wasn't possible until the trucks series was introduced in 1995. And while dozens of Sprint Cup drivers double up in the Nationwide series, few compete in the trucks series.
Still, some of Busch's contemporaries, including Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Elliot Sadler, have raced in all three series, and in 2008, Busch became the first driver to compete in all three series on the same weekend at three different tracks — Pocono, Nashville and Texas — in pursuit of the triple.
Now that Busch has pulled off the sweep, he's looking toward at least three more opportunities when all three series run the final three weeks of the season at Texas, Phoenix and Homestead.
"That should be the plan," Busch said. "I'm sure Kevin Harvick is going to be right there, too."
The three wins at Bristol last week gave Busch 78 career NASCAR victories — 19 Cup, 40 Nationwide and 19 trucks — which places him ninth on the all-time list, 122 behind all-time leader Richard Petty's 200 Cup wins.
And Busch is just 25 years old.
"That's what I'm trying to do, to go after the win record," Busch said. "It is across all three series; it's not all in the Sprint Cup series winning 200. I still think it's a pretty cool feat to try to achieve. Being in all three different series, it makes it even more challenging that you're not racing the same thing every weekend. You're racing with different crew chiefs, you're racing different vehicles and different tracks sometimes, flying back and forth.
"Some people will try to dumb it up as much as they want to ... saying, 'It's not all that great,' ... that, 'It's not as big a deal to win in the minor leagues.' "
The big leagues, of course, is the Sprint Cup series, and Busch's win at Bristol propelled him from eighth to third place in the standings with two races remaining before the Chase for the Sprint Cup begins.
"People say I run myself too thin," said Busch, who will run his own Kyle Busch Motorsports truck at Chicago on Friday night during an off weekend for the Cup drivers. "But I feel it's a benefit for me to be out there all the time. Other drivers don't see it that way. That's their preference in what they want to do, but for me, I've learned an awful lot. With the ever-changing tire compounds that Goodyear brings out, and the way setups are always evolving, and the way cars are always changing ... more track time seems to help me and gives me a better understanding on what to expect out there."
Busch, the 2009 Nationwide champion, has won 10 of 20 starts in the series for Joe Gibbs Racing this season and is in third place in the standings despite missing four races. He'll miss a fifth this weekend when he sits out the race in Montreal. But he plans on running 25 to 28 Nationwide events next year.
"The reason I run in the Nationwide is to keep Brad and Carl (Edwards) from winning the championship," Busch joked about two of his fiercest rivals.
Busch and Keselowski traded paint in last Friday night's Nationwide race, prompting Keselowski to insult Busch the next day during the drivers' introductions before the Cup race. Because of his volatile nature, Busch is one of NASCAR's most polarizing drivers — both in the garages and in the grandstands.
So after winning the Cup race, he heard almost as many boos as he saw fans celebrating the historic sweep with brooms.
But he deals with it.
"Yeah, there are people out there booing Jimmie Johnson (after) every win he has, every championship he's won," Busch said.
"The fans are what the fans are in this sport. That's what makes the sport so interesting ... there's a big fan following for particular drivers, there's a big fan following for particular sponsors ... .manufacturers, all of that. You always want them to be on your side but not even Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. has all the fans on his side, too."
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