Busch says he won't run full 2010 Nationwide slate

Kyle Busch's commitment to win the Nationwide Series championship for Joe Gibbs Racing while also competing full time in the Sprint Cup Series for the first time in his career ends after this season, Busch said earlier this week.

Busch has a 207-point lead over former series champ Carl Edwards after 21 of 35 Nationwide races. But he's fallen out of a qualified spot for the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Kyle Busch

Career Nationwide Stats

Year	No.	W	T-5	T-10	Rank
2003	7	0	2	3	48
2004	34*	5	16	22	2
2005	14	1	2	3	44
2006	34	1	4	12	7
2007	19	4	14	16	16
2008	30	10	18	20	6
2009	21*	6	15	18	1
Totals	159	27	71	94

* Full season

Career Cup Stats

Year	No.	W	T-5	T-10	Rank
2004	6	0	0	0	52
2005	36	2	9	13	20
2006	36	1	10	18	10
2007	36	1	11	20	5
2008	36	8	17	21	10
2009	21	3	4	6	13
Totals	171	15	51	78

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"We've won six [Nationwide] races this year," Busch said at the mid-point of a two-day Goodyear tire test at Dover International Speedway. "It's been good and maybe it's taken a little bit away from the Cup effort. I don't think it has, but we're already talking about next year and cutting it back and getting our Cup efforts back up to where they need to be.

"Hopefully, we can get it down to about 22 or 24 Nationwide Series races, just companion stuff, not flying all over the place."

Busch, who's qualified for the Chase the past three years, fell out of contention for a Chase berth two races ago. He's 101 points out of qualifying for the sixth annual Chase with five races left until the cutoff.

Edwards won the Nationwide title in 2007 while racing Cup full time for Roush Fenway Racing, and Clint Bowyer won in 2008 while doing double duty with Richard Childress Racing. Busch planned the same in 2008 but decided against it after winning four of the first 16 races, but being 243 points behind.

"Last year when we were winning all the Nationwide races and running really well, the plan was initially to go full season," Busch said. "And then I felt like our Cup stuff sort of stalled [so] we cut [the Nationwide schedule] back."

But while his Cup effort went into a tailspin after he won his eighth race of 2008 his Nationwide program flourished, which convinced team owners Joe and J.D. Gibbs to shoot for the 2009 title.

And Busch was all for it, after winning a league-leading 10 races a year ago, splitting time with JGR crew chiefs Dave Rogers and Jason Ratcliff and even running a couple of races, with one victory, with partner Braun Racing. Busch helped Rogers' No. 20 team win the 2008 Nationwide owners' championship.

"I missed five races and if I could have just stayed at the same average finish that I had the first 19 to 20 races I would have won the championship by 16 points over Clint Bowyer," Busch said. "So when you see that -- and I wrecked a lot, those first 19 races -- and I still had a pretty good window there.

"We thought about it and how our cars are really good and Joe and J.D. said, 'Man, wouldn't it be cool to have a Nationwide championship solely JGR,' [both] owner and driver points, and so I said, 'I want to do it -- I want to win a Nationwide championship.'

"Anybody would. So our cars have been strong enough and that's why we've done it."

This season Busch, teamed full time with Ratcliff on JGR's No. 18 Toyota is currently in a string of nine consecutive first- or second-place finishes, a series-tying record.

But it's no consolation with the way his Cup program has fallen off. So he's going to cut back. But he said he's going to give the Nationwide title this one last chance, while also running a handful of Camping World Truck Series races, where he's won twice in eight starts this season.

"You could [focus on one series], but then you sort of lose out on getting at least one NASCAR championship," Busch said, almost going against his avowed desire to win when he said a championship, at least short term, might mean more.

"If you can trade a winning season for a championship season anybody would always say you want a championship season," Busch said. "The thing for me would just be to be a champion. If you can get a winless season and become a champion then you've got it -- then go win all the races you've lost.

"You've solidified yourself, you've made it in the sport and you're a champion. You might be ridiculed for having a winless season [but] if you go one year winning 10 races a year everybody's going to be like, 'Man, you're the greatest thing since -- Joey Logano. It'll work itself out, eventually."

And so he's made the decision to pull back, even though he thinks he's better off racing more, rather than less, and that traveling across the country while racing at different venues on the same weekend is hardly a physical strain.