If you want a ticket to ride the Kyle Busch bandwagon, this may be your best chance to get it.
As long as you haven’t been sleeping during the first five weeks of NASCAR action, you know that no one has been hotter than Rowdy. The 22-year-old Las Vegas native currently sits atop both the Sprint Cup and Craftsman Truck series standings and sat comfortably in the top three in Nationwide points — and as close as 10 points out of the lead — during the series’ first four events.
A more in-depth look will reveal just how dominant Busch has been this season. In five Sprint Cup races, he leads the series both in miles led (597.15) and laps led (336 or 21.7 percent of the laps this season). By comparison, the next closest miles-led leader is Carl Edwards, winner of both the Las Vegas and Atlanta races, at 307.82 miles led.
Busch has an average starting position of 15th — thanks to a pole at Las Vegas — and an average finish of 7.4, which includes his victory in the Kolbalt Tools 500 at Atlanta. He has led the most laps in two events and has finished in the top five three times. Busch’s worst finish — a 17th — came at Bristol Sunday when he encountered a steering problem, causing him to spin while leading the race.
In the Nationwide Series, Busch is second in both miles led (384.12) and laps led (220 or 26.2 percent) behind teammate Tony Stewart. Busch has averaged a 7.6-place starting position and an average finish of 20.2, a number that reflects two finishes of 31st and 24th when he blew tires while in contention at Las Vegas and Atlanta, and a 42nd Saturday at Bristol when he was involved in a lap-13 crash.

What’s led to this success of the young driver who has lived up to his nickname? Many point to his teaming up Joe Gibbs Racing this season. Busch admitted on “NASCAR Victory Lane” after his win in Atlanta that being with the Gibbs team allow him to feel comfortable in his own skin. If he is just now getting comfortable in his own skin, then we may all be in for a surprise for the rest of this season.

Busch has also dominated the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. In the series’ first three events, Busch has two victories and a second-place showing at Daytona, where he lost by .077 second to Todd Bodine. Those runs equate to a 1.3 average finish. In fact, Busch has not finished out of the top two in the series’ last five races, dating back to the 2007 Casino Arizona 150 at Phoenix Int’l Raceway in November.
What’s led to this success of the young driver who has lived up to his nickname? Many point to his teaming up Joe Gibbs Racing this season. Busch admitted on “NASCAR Victory Lane” after his win in Atlanta that being with the Gibbs team allow him to feel comfortable in his own skin. If he is just now getting comfortable in his own skin, then we may all be in for a surprise for the rest of this season.
Though all of this may sound like a glowing endorsement for Busch or a team press release of some sort, I’m not quite willing to go as far as Jimmy Spencer and predict that Busch will capture the 2008 Sprint Cup. Year after year, drivers have come on strong during different parts of the season while struggling at other times. Take Stewart for example. In his sophomore season in 2000, Stewart led the series with six victories, three of which came during an early summer hot streak of six-straight top 10s. But five DNFs — three of which came in the season’s first nine races — relegated Stewart to sixth place in the standings that year, when the title went to teammate Bobby Labonte.
Regardless, Busch has talent. Even when older brother Kurt, a talented driver in his own right, was making a name for himself — and winning the 2004 title — he said, “If you think I’m good, wait until you see my brother.”
And seen him we have, and lately he’s been in the windshield of other NASCAR drivers. I, for one, have thrown away any anti-Kyle sentiments that stemmed from his somewhat immature behavior of seasons past and have climbed aboard the bandwagon. For anyone else who wants to call themselves a Kyle Busch fan, too, the time to jump on is now, before the wagon morphs into a freight train headed toward the 2008 Cup title.