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NASCAR

Kyle Busch back in victory lane

By SceneDaily.com

Mar 18, 2009

HAMPTON, Ga. - Joe Gibbs Racing's Kyle Busch is back in a familiar position lately - victory lane.

Busch added to his recent streak with a win in Saturday's American Commercial Lines 200 NASCAR Camping World Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, his second win in that series this season. That's his fourth win in three series this season. He won the Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last weekend and is the defending race winner of today's Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta.

It's the kind of roll the driver enjoyed last year, a season in which he won 21 races across the top three NASCAR Series.

Still, the 23-year-old downplays any questions concerning whether this is the beginning of another streak for him.

“I don’t think so," he said when asked about it at Atlanta. "Every race is different and every weekend’s different so we just keep doing what we do and hopefully we can keep winning races. If it’s a hot streak then it’s a hot streak – if that’s what you want to call it, but to me it’s just supposed to be what it’s supposed to be and that’s to run your best every weekend and if wins are coming then that’s what’s supposed to happen.”

With his Cup win last weekend, he vaulted 12 positions to sixth in the Cup standings.

Whether or not it's the beginning of a streak, it was definitely a climb that put him back in a more familiar position near the top of the standings. Busch led the series last season entering the 10-race, title-determining Chase For The Sprint Cup, but struggled in that final segment to finish 10th in the standings.

Prior to the 2008 Chase, he won eight of 22 races in what was his first season with JGR. So his recent surge in the Truck, Nationwide and Cup series certainly hasn't surprised his competition.

"I’ve never seen Kyle not on a hot streak since he went over to Gibbs, to be honest with you," Roush Fenway Racing's Matt Kenseth said. "I know they struggled a little bit in the Chase and had some problems here and there, but they’ve been one of the cars to beat if not the car to beat. It seems like no matter what he drives, no matter what track we go to since the beginning of last year, so I didn’t really think that was gonna be any different or didn’t see a reason why it should be any different because it’s the same team."

Richard Childress Racing's Kevin Harvick said that Busch "seems like he didn’t miss a beat from last year so we’re hoping that he does the same thing he did last year and just gets it all out of the way here early, but most likely that won’t happen two years in a row."

As to Busch, he's just trying to continue business as usual. He doesn't worry too much about praise or criticism from other drivers or about any potential history he could make with another outstanding season.

He just wants to keep contending for championships. This year he is chasing both the Cup and Nationwide titles while also competing for Billy Ballew Motorsports in select Truck races. This year, he just wants to push his strong run in the opening 26 races into a title-winning performance.

"To me, we just go out there and do what we can every week to try to win races and to try to compete for this championship and the final 10 is where it’s at so we need to start concentrating on what we need to do to get better in those and be there by that point," he said.