Busch to join Edwards as Nationwide threat in 2009

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Carl Edwards isn't the overconfident type, but if anyone else thought Edwards was the prohibitive favorite for the 2009 Nationwide Series championship after he ended up 21 points behind 2008 champion Clint Bowyer, hold the phone.

Kyle Busch is "99 percent" certain to run the full 35-race Nationwide schedule next year, Joe Gibbs Racing's vice president of Nationwide Series operations Steve de Souza said on Friday at the ESPN Club in the Walt Disney World Resort.

Kyle Busch

2008 N'wide stats

Races	30
Wins	10
Top-fives	18
Top-10s	20
Poles	4
Avg. Start	8.8
Avg. Finish	10.7
LL Finishes	20
DNFs	6

While Busch, who led the league last season with 10 victories, was one of only two of the top-10 drivers in the 2008 standings who missed the Media Day for Saturday's Nationwide Series awards banquet, de Souza made it clear what the organization's intention was.

Dave Rogers, the crew chief for JGR's owners' championship-winning No. 20 Toyota, said that he'd work another combination season, with Gibbs' Sprint Cup drivers Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano doing most of the races. He said Busch would run a full schedule in the No. 18 Camry with crew chief Jason Ratcliff.

"Obviously we're real excited," de Souza said. "We still have a few more t's to cross and i's to dot, but Kyle's made it well-known to us -- actually when he came [to Gibbs] he wanted to [run the full schedule], but we were already [planned-out] and we couldn't do that.

"But he and J.D. [Gibbs, team president] and Joe [Gibbs, team owner] have talked a lot about it and I think we'd love to do it for him. He's basically said, 'I'd like a shot at it before I get too far down the road in age and I've got too many priorities where I just can't do it; because I've got the desire.'

"He's still in the mode where he'll race anything, anytime, all the time. So generally our plans -- and it could change -- but our plan is to run for the championship next year.

"You know Kyle -- he could change his mind at a moment's notice. But he's been talking about wanting to do this ever since last year. The chances are better that we will, than we won't. Although we still have a few hurdles to getting there, as an organization we're excited and we want to support him in doing that."

Busch won eight races in the No. 18 that Ratcliff oversaw, even though both Ratcliff and Rogers were suspended from going to the racetracks by NASCAR and JGR after a post-race inspection infraction at Michigan International Speedway in August. Busch won four of his eight races in the car after Ratcliff remained at the shop. (Continued)