Busch not sweating slow start in his quest for title

Will Kyle Busch be the Jimmie Johnson of 2006 or the Tony Stewart, Jeremy Mayfield and Ryan Newman of 2004; the Kurt Busch of 2005; or, even, the Kyle Busch of 2006?

Each driver finished 33rd or worse in that season's first race in the Chase. Only Johnson -- who finished 39th at New Hampshire -- went on to win the championship.

Fast facts

What	Camping World RV 400
When	2 p.m. ET Sunday
TV	ABC, 1 p.m. ET
Radio	MRN (Sirius Ch. 28), 1 ET

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Busch finished 34th last week at in Loudon, and just like that, the driver who won eight of the first 26 Sprint Cup races and began the Chase atop the standings with 80 bonus points had plummeted to eighth in the standings, 74 points behind front-runners Carl Edwards and Johnson.

"We've got to put last week behind us and look ahead to this week," Busch said. "Last week is over, and there's nothing we can do about it. This team has had a knack for forgetting about bad weeks quickly, and hopefully we can do that this week, too."

If there was a glint in Busch's eye when he said that it might be because Sunday's Cup race, the Camping World RV 400, is at Dover International Speedway, where Busch won in June.

"Dover is fun -- I love that place," said Busch, who won easily in June, leading all but nine of the final 164 laps. "There are a lot of characteristics that make it fun -- the concrete, the mile, the high banks and everything. I think we can run well there. We won the last time, and this time around, hopefully things will go about the same way. If not, a top-three or a top-five would be good."

Greg Biffle, who won last week at New Hampshire, led the most laps in June and finished third, behind Edwards. Biffle, who won at Dover in 2005, has the best driver rating (116.1). He has finished among the top-10 in six of the past seven races at Dover, including a second-place finish behind Edwards last September.

"I picked Dover and Kansas as being the place where we could get our first win in the Chase," Biffle said, "and now going to Dover as possibly our second and maybe Kansas our third, those opportunities really excite me.

"I was pumped up for going to Dover to start with, but now to go there with a win and being third in points is a great feeling. I know I'll have to beat a tough guy like Carl Edwards, because that's almost like his home track. He's done very well there, but I feel like we'll have a good chance of being there at the end."

Roush Fenway Racing dominated last year's Dover Chase race. Matt Kenseth led 192 laps before engine failure sidelined him. Edwards took over the lead and led the final 38 laps, beating Biffle by half a second.

Not surprisingly, Edwards also is a big fan of Dover. In addition to the win, he has two seconds and a third in his past four starts at the Monster Mile.

"Dover is one of my favorite tracks," Edwards said. "It's pretty much a one-groove track so you need to handle well through the center of the corners to keep your position. We won this race last year, and we had a strong race here in the spring."

Although the Chase is in only its fifth year, a trend already has developed: The points lead has changed hands following the Dover race every year.

"We're coming in as the points leader, and we'd like to head out of Dover in the same position," Edwards said. "Hopefully we'll get dialed in and handling well and get a good finish."