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.

Busch won the 2008 Mexico City road race in the No. 20, the only one of his 10 wins he got in that car; and ran only 30 of the 35 Nationwide races. He still finished sixth in the drivers' standings, won a record 21 times in 2008 in NASCAR's three national tours and amazingly, went to Victory Lane in three different Nationwide Series cars: Gibbs' Nos. 18 and 20, and Braun Racing's No. 32 Camry.

Of the four Sprint Cup regulars who also competed full-time in the Nationwide Series in 2008, only Edwards will return next season, and he knows what he's in for, after he won seven races while making a late chase trying to catch Bowyer. He did say there was no question he'd continue to "double-dip."

Sweet, sweet victory

Clint Bowyer won't race for another Nationwide title in 2009 which makes his championship run in 2008 that much sweeter.

• Complete story, click here

"I really enjoy running both series," Edwards said. "It's a great thing for me and I don't know what else I'd do on Saturday. I get bored really easily so it's a great thing [because] I get to be around a lot of great people and great drivers and have a chance at a championship."

Next season, that'll include Busch, full-time.

"That'll be fun," Edwards said through a broad grin. "Kyle's an unreal competitor and those [Gibbs] guys are good. But I'll tell you what -- I couldn't be more excited."

Bowyer is concentrating on his new Cup team, Richard Childress Racing's No. 33 Chevrolet, and will only run a limited Nationwide schedule, but he acknowledged what Edwards and the rest of the competition is facing.

"Strictly just off of what we saw this year, you have to go with Kyle Busch," Bowyer said of his personal favorite for the 2009 title. "Carl, at the end of the year showed what Kyle Busch has had all year. That Gibbs organization and those Toyotas ran pretty strong all year."

Bowyer said he wasn't exactly sure what to make of his new-found off-time each race weekend.

"It's going to be relaxing," Bowyer said with a laugh. "But I don't want to relax. I'm a racer, and if there's a race going on, I want to be a part of it. I love this series, I love racing and competing in this series because I'm a racer, you know? If I'm not racing, I'll be up there on the hauler watching it with Richard [Childress], or up in the stands."

David Ragan, who was fourth in the Nationwide standings, will split the 2009 season in Roush Fenway Racing's No. 6 Ford with Truck Series graduate Erik Darnell; while David Reutimann, who finished seventh in Nationwide in Michael Waltrip Racing's No. 99 Toyota, is unsure of his 2009 schedule in the secondary series.

"I'm really disappointed," Reutimann said at the hole he anticipates in his racing schedule. "I was hoping we were going to pull off a deal to be able to do [the full schedule], and I'd still like to run as many as I could, but the reality is I don't think that it's in the cards, and certainly not in the 99 car, so we'll keep plugging away and maybe talking to some other people and maybe see if we can fill in some races and do some other stuff."