Kurt Busch is the second consecutive driver to win the Cup championship with Jack Roush Racing. Credit: Autostock

Preview: Kurt Busch

Champion looks for first Cup repeat since Gordon in 1997-98

Kurt Busch, as the second consecutive Roush Racing driver to win a NASCAR Cup championship, feels like he has a good model. Of course, Busch has his own ideas of how to one-up teammate Matt Kenseth, the '03 champion who fell to eighth last year.

"Matt was a great champion and the way he approached his title defense was one that we're gonna model ourselves after," Busch said. "But yet we can do some things a bit differently."

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Kenseth's win total went up in his title-defending season -- but all his other stats were down -- except for his critical DNF total.

In his title year, Busch's win total went down from 2003, but everything else was up, except his DNFs, which he more than cut in half.

"I've had the opportunity to talk with Jeff Gordon," Busch said. "Dale Jarrett is a very well respected champion in my mind -- and of course, with Kenseth being a teammate of mine, it's very easy to discuss things with him.

"To see what he could have done better, we'll try that out."

Busch says he's ready, after vacationing in Tahiti in December, then the holidays, three tests of his No. 97 Ford and a warm-up racing outing in last weekend's Rolex 24 at Daytona sports car race.

"It's been a good off-season [and] we're refreshed -- ready to go," Busch said. "We've done quite a bit more testing than we normally have at this time of the year [and] we're excited with [the way it] has gone.

"Everybody's up and up and ready to go for 2005."

And that begins this week with Speedweeks at Daytona.

Busch's team returns intact, including crew chief Jimmy Fennig, who engineered a career year for Busch that included three wins, 10 top five finishes and 21 top 10s.

"It's definitely different to be able to see the way that the crew is approaching the racecar," Busch said. "The way we had everybody return on our team is a great feeling -- to have the infrastructure still so similar to what we did last year, but yet to know that we achieved something very special.

"It enables us to walk around a bit lighter with our footsteps and just to smile and look at the other teams and to have different crewmembers addressing my crewmembers as champions."

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Busch earned that honor after easing into the inaugural Chase for the Nextel Cup in seventh in the standings. He then roared through the final 10 races to accrue the greatest point total with a win, six top five and nine top 10 finishes.

In the end, Busch won his first Cup championship by a scant eight points over Jimmie Johnson.

"We look at how we're gonna build cars and we just structure the whole season right around the beginning of the year," Busch said. "With the way that the 17 [Kenseth] seemed to struggle a little bit -- they had an awesome year back in 2003 [but] it's just that everything falls into place.

"That's what it takes to win a championship -- is to have your preparation meet those opportunities, whether it's out on the racetrack [or] behind the scenes.

"We know we had a great year last year and a lot of things fell into place. I'm very happy and very fortunate. Just to be able to be a champion is one thing and to be able to go and defend that title and achieve another one is something that we're going to strive for this year with that same type of drive."

Busch won his only Bud Pole of the season in the Homestead finale, so he said coming into this weekend's season opening Budweiser Shootout as the series champion is a definite plus.

This will be Busch's third time competing in the Budweiser Shootout, in which he's previously finished poorly. But lately, Busch and his team have proven they can run with the best in restrictor-plate races -- with a pair of top-five finishes in the four plate races last season.

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"I'm really proud of the restrictor-plate effort by the Roush Racing organization," Busch said. "It seemed at one time that we were the little boy in town with not being able to put the power down and hang with a lot of those guys, but last year we really had set-ups that would run."

It's only the first step in repeating as champion, a feat that has not been accomplished since Gordon in 1997-98.

"One thing that's good about being a favorite is that the attention is always around you -- you've got that same buzz and that same vibe all year," Busch said. "If we're looked at as a favorite, we're still gonna have that same mentality to work at our pace and to not get too excited.

"You just have to roll with the punches. If you're a favorite, you're a favorite [and] if you're not, it's something that it almost feels better not to be one."

As much as he's sometimes been criticized for his demeanor in the past, Busch said he has his priorities in order and his goals in focus.

"It's still about going and hanging out with my crew chief, Jimmy Fennig, and being myself and going to the racetrack competitive and knowing that we've got an opportunity to win and we're gonna be respected as champions for the year," Busch said.

"It still is the same objective as it is every year and that's to go out and win the championship, but to have one under the belt is satisfying. It fuels you for a stronger drive and creates more ambition to come to the racetrack and to shoot for it again."

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