Big Brother reminds us all he's still a champion driver

HAMPTON, Ga. -- Just when you begin to think maybe Little Brother is about to render Big Brother almost irrelevant, isn't it just like an older sibling to step up and remind everyone who was brought into this world first?

So it was Sunday with Kurt Busch at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where he ran away with the Kobalt Tools 500 in front of a sparse crowd that couldn't have been half the size of the 94,400 AMS and NASCAR had the audacity to announce as the official attendance.

Best brothers?

Kyle and Kurt Busch rank sixth on the list of brothers who have won in the Cup Series. But the duo could easily move up.

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Actually, to say Busch ran away with his first victory of this young season and the 19th of his Sprint Cup career is a bit of a misnomer. He dominated most of a scheduled 325-lap race, but then had to come from behind after a late caution and pit stop that preceded an unexpected green-white-checkered finish and pushed the event to a lap total of 330.

"It was like I ran two different races, one for 500 miles and one for the last three laps," Busch said.

He was good enough to win both. He led 232 of the first 325 laps, dominating the field -- then needed less than half a lap to get around Carl Edwards down the backstretch and lead the last two to the checkered flag.

His philosophy on the day was simple, if not flawless. Despite a Driver Rating that NASCAR pronounced as perfect, he brushed the wall on at least three occasions when he mentally dispensed with the strategy that propelled him to the front in the first place.

But he never let his mind stray for long.

"I felt like I raced the track, not the competition," Busch said. "It felt like old-school Darlington, old-school Rockingham. The tracks here in the Southeast chew up tires.

"The times I did brush the wall, I was just being stupid, trying to race the competition. I lost track of the ultimate focus, which was just driving the race car, knowing how many laps you have on your tires, having confidence in the pit crew."

Bragging rights?

Even though he is a former champion, having won the very first Chase for the Sprint Cup championship in 2004, and he owns six more career Cup victories than younger brother Kyle, these days you would hardly know it.

Kyle, who won the Camping World Truck Series event at AMS on Saturday, has been raking in the family's lion share of accolades since going on a hot streak early last year that made it seem a little role reversal with his older bro was in progress.

Well, maybe it is and maybe it isn't.

When Kurt runs as he did Sunday, it's a reminder that the guy isn't an ugly stepchild. And at 30 years of age, he's got plenty of driving left ahead of him, too.

Furthermore, Busch seems to be developing into a mature leader for Penske Racing, which he credited with not making wholesale -- or really any -- changes to his No. 2 Dodge team after he struggled to an 18th-place finish in the standings last year.

Coming into Sunday, Kyle was only one spot ahead of Kurt in this year's standings, with Kyle sitting in sixth following his own victory at Las Vegas a week earlier and Kurt in seventh. Sunday's victory, coupled with Kyle's poor 18th-place finish, moved Kurt to third while Kyle slipped to seventh.

And that made Big Bro smile real wide.

"It does give us bragging rights because we have an off weekend coming up," the older Busch said. "We get to definitely pour the Miller Lites for a week, then get back focused again heading to one of my favorite tracks, Bristol. I felt like I needed to hold up my end of the bargain.

"I'm real proud of [Kyle], real happy for him. He's done a tremendous job, transitioning to [Joe Gibbs] Racing, to be up front every week like he has, to run strong. To beat him [Sunday], and to beat guys like Carl Edwards and Jeff Gordon, it's really a special day."

Getting what he needs

While many drivers were complaining about all the slipping and sliding that the old, cracked surface at AMS renders a way of life during a Cup race, Busch simply dealt with it better than everyone else -- Kyle and the rest included.

"I felt like after Saturday's practice, in our team meeting with David Stremme and Sam Hornish Jr., everybody had the same complaints," Busch said. "I told them, 'You have to deal with [being] loose in at this race track. You're never going to get that fixed as far as your chassis setup goes.'

"That helped us focus on the more important part, which was to be sliding the right amount on corner exit. The guy that has the best grip from the middle of the corner to the start/finish line is usually going to have a real good day. I learned that from the great Benny Parsons. He always told me, 'That's where good cars lay down the power.'"

Busch not only had a good car Sunday, he had a great one. And team owner Roger Penske said he never doubted that he had a great driver behind the wheel in it. Watching from high atop the race track in the spotters' stand, Penske marveled as Busch took the No. 2 Dodge within inches of the outside wall lap after lap without making what could have been a very costly mistake.

"From my perspective, being up there with the spotters, you get a chance to see all the drivers competing," Penske said. "Kurt ran a foot off the wall all day long, and kept the car underneath him. There was no question that on the long runs, we had a great car.

"What really came to the forefront [Sunday] was we put it all together. We had a great driver in Kurt from the day he jumped on the team, but I'm not sure we've always given him the horse he needed."

He had the horse Sunday. He also had just the right touch with the whip. It might have been enough to make Lil' Bro jealous for a change.

Penske, for one, seems to believe that he's got the best driver in the Busch family. He said it has just taken some time for Kurt to adjust to all Penske Racing has to offer him, but that he thinks the No. 2 team is ready to take off in Kurt's fourth season with the company.

"To me, it's like running a business," Penske said. "A business isn't successful the first day or the first year. I think I had to get Kurt to buy into that. ... His brother is a great driver. But I can tell you one thing: there aren't many people that can hold a candle to Kurt. That's why we hired him."

It paid off big Sunday, and suddenly the brother on the brink of being forgotten finds himself on the cusp of something else: a possible championship-contending season.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.

Joe Menzer is the author of "The Great American Gamble: How the 1979 Daytona 500 Gave Birth to a NASCAR Nation." Click here to purchase.