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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Countdown to Daytona - Kyle Busch
Kyle Busch had an amazing 2008 season. In 81 starts including NASCAR Cup, Nationwide and the Truck Series, Busch won a modern-era record 21 races in the three divisions...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted February 04, 2009   Harrisburg, NC
Kyle Busch led Friday’s qualifying session with a lap of 174.161 mph for Saturday’s San Bernardino County 200 at Auto Club Speedway (Jason Smith/Getty Images Photo)

Editor’s note: This is the eighth of 10 stories in SPEEDtv.com’s “Countdown To Daytona” preview of the upcoming 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.

In 2008, Kyle Busch proved he could win plenty of races. In 2009, he wants to prove that he and his Joe Gibbs Racing team can win a NASCAR Sprint Cup championship as well.

Busch had what truly was an amazing 2008 season. In 81 starts in the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series, he won a modern-era record 21 races in the three divisions, with 45 top-five and 57 top-10 finishes.

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Eight of those 21 race victories came in the Sprint Cup Series, where he dominated NASCAR’s 26-race regular season, at one time opening a lead of 262 points over second place. But as the whole world knows by now, the wheels fell off in the Chase for the Sprint Cup where engine problems, crashes, suspension woes and other problems dropped the 23-year-old phenom to 10th place and ruining what otherwise was a career year.

The truth of the matter was that Busch and his JGR crew were ahead of the vast majority of the competition at the start of the season, but they got caught and passed by both Hendrick Motorsports and Roush Fenway Racing by the time the Chase rolled around.

“Our cars started out great,” said Busch. “We kept trying to work on them and make them better, but we only made baby steps. We only made tenths here or there, where other guys made bigger gains on us and ultimately passed us, so where do we need to improve? I know our front ends need to turn better and if we can get better engines, that will help out, too. We’ve got some work to do in those areas and just try to do what we did last year and not have the pieces fall off.”

For this season, the team is making changes to make sure that history doesn’t repeat itself in the second half of the season. “There were five different things we felt like we needed to go to work on,” said team owner Joe Gibbs. “We have kind of been working real hard in five different areas and so that was kind of the result of what we thought happened. I'm sure every other race team out there has got their agenda and that's what makes it exciting I think. You're never sure who's going to wind up winning it this year.”


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