Busch wants new team to support him at all costs

LOUDON, N.H. -- Kyle Busch said he knows what he wants for Kyle Busch when it comes to the driver's future.

And what he said he wants is to drive for an organization that will back him completely, in public and behind closed doors. He indicated that he isn't sure he always has received that kind of support from Hendrick Motorsports.

No. 1 target

After Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced he was signing with Hendrick, Kyle Busch became the top driver on the market.

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"[I want] somebody looking out for Kyle Busch. Somebody that will back me, somebody that will, you know, I guess back me up when I'm right -- and when I'm wrong, take me off to the side and sit me down and tell me," Busch said Friday at New Hampshire International Speedway, where he was preparing for Sunday's Lenox Industrial Tools 300. "Just an organization that will be to the point, and tell you to your face. I don't need somebody or something where people will be sort of two-faced, telling you that you're great and this and that and everything else, and then go behind closed doors and tell somebody else, 'Man, he's out of control. What are we doing? This, that and whatever.'

"It's just something where you want to have the personnel behind you. You want to have people that are backing you. You want to have sponsors who appreciate you and back you. And of course, being able to have a good relationship not just with the team owner, but with everybody in the organization."

Busch will finish out this Nextel Cup season driving the No. 5 Chevrolet for team owner Rick Hendrick, his employer since 2004. Although he was under contract with Hendrick Motorsports through next season, he and Hendrick mutually agreed to part ways recently when Hendrick announced that he was signing Dale Earnhardt Jr. to a five-year contract, beginning next season.

Asked to clarify if he felt he was treated as he described by Hendrick, Busch replied: "You know, I didn't see it, but I heard it. I'd rather just find somebody that does stand behind me that I know stands behind me, where I hear from everybody that they're standing behind me -- instead of hearing through the grapevine that there are different things being said."

Busch said that he wants to take his time finding his new employer. And he made it clear that he is working on his schedule, and not that of his prospective bosses. (Continued)