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NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series
TRUCKS: Ownership Has Challenges For Busch
Kyle Busch Motorsports campaigns two NCWTS Toyotas...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted March 18, 2010   Charlotte, NC
Kyle Busch has won at Chicagoland Speedway in all three of NASCAR's national series. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Kyle Busch is quickly finding out that driving the car isn’t the hardest part of having a NASCAR career.

Busch, who has won two consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup races at Bristol Motor Speedway, will be one of the two or three prohibitive favorites for Sunday’s Food City 500. And purely on driving ability, he’s unquestionably one of the best at what he does in NASCAR.

But driving is far from the most challenging part of his NASCAR responsibilities. Being the owner of Kyle Busch Motorsports, a team that fields two full-time Toyota Tundras in the NASCAR Camping World Series might just prove to be a good bit more daunting.

Asked about his truck team during NASCAR’s weekly teleconference on Wednesday, Busch was blunt.

“Things have been difficult, to be honest with you,” said Busch. “We've had a lot of phone calls, a lot of people interested. Just unfortunately we haven't had things go down the way we would have liked to get some sponsorship on these trucks to make sure everything is funded for the whole season.”

On track, things have been good: Busch finished second to Kevin Harvick at Atlanta a couple of weeks back, with Tayler Malsam a respectable 13th in the second KBM truck. Right now, Busch and Malsam are fifth and ninth, respectively, in the Truck Series points standings.

The business side hasn’t fared quite as well.

Busch’s first year of NCWTS ownership got off to a rocky financial start, through no fault of his own. KBM had signed Miccosukee Resorts to be the primary sponsor of the No. 18 Toyota that Busch shares driving duties on with Brian Ickler.

But a change in leadership among the Florida-based Miccosukee Indian Tribe resulted in a decision to drop all NASCAR activity, including sponsorship of KBM in the Truck Series and James Finch’s Phoenix Racing squad on the Sprint Cup side.

Needless to say, losing his primary sponsor just days before Daytona Speedweeks opened was a tough blow for KBM to absorb. But Busch said Wednesday that the team would press on for the rest of 2010.

“We're going to run the whole season regardless,” Busch said. “It would be less of a financial burden on myself not having to buy all the resources, buy everything out of my pocket, to now have to run the whole deal. That was the reason we did this, because Miccosukee was here in order to make sure we could run the year. It's been a challenge, yet it's been something to learn off of as well.”

Likewise, a plan to put Johnny Benson in a third KBM truck hasn’t come to pass. Again, money is the culprit.

“If Kyle Busch can't find a sponsor for his own trucks, it's challenging to find one for him,” Busch said of Benson, who will drive the next two NCWTS races for Billy Ballew, Busch’s former boss. “I love the guy. Would love to have him in my race trucks. Unfortunately, there's nothing out there that's been able to come to fruition yet. Maybe once I get my deal up and sold, we'll be able to move forward and put a full courts press on Johnny Benson's deal.”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEEDtv.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.

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