Atlanta means more than just double duty for Busch

HAMPTON, Ga. -- For Kyle Busch, pulling double and sometimes triple duty isn't difficult; the 24-year-old has become famous for crisscrossing the country jumping in and out of cars and trucks on the same race weekend.

No matter the series, as long as it has four wheels and a steering wheel, Busch wants to drive it.

Busch on front row

Kyle Busch hit 192.280 mph at Atlanta to qualify second.

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This season, however, Busch doesn't have the luxury of merely climbing into the cockpit and racing. He's a team owner in the Camping World Truck Series and on weekends where both the Sprint Cup Series and Trucks run, the boss of Kyle Busch Motorsports wears several hats. The added responsibility, though welcomed, is making his to-do list much longer.

"It's been a challenge, definitely," said Busch, who is running a two-truck team for which he drives the No. 18 Toyota. "We've had a lot of things that we were really excited about coming into the year and then we got a lot of bad news."

The team's Daytona debut was dismal and now its facing sponsorship woes after losing the support of Miccosukee, although Busch is piecing together support to help pay the bills.

"We've been struggling trying to find some sponsorship. We had some help from a great company, Heluva Good!, for Daytona and we're giving them some support here in Atlanta, they're on the bed cover," Busch said. "Toyota has stepped up. They've come to help us here for this weekend, as well, along with the 56 truck. We're going to run the year regardless but it would certainly make it nice to pay off all the notes I got outstanding on buying everything.

"It's going to be maybe a tough challenge for this year, but hopefully down the road it will pay off and two, three, four years down the road we'll be stronger than ever."

Other than the accumulating debt, the weekends where Busch plays driver and owner aren't much different, he said.

"[Daytona] was different because you're driving your own equipment, but you don't treat it any differently really," he said.

Busch crashed on the first lap of the Daytona race but as an owner he knew he had to make the repairs and get back out on the track to salvage points for the season and keep his team funded. He finished 22nd. His other truck, driven by Tayler Malsam, finished 17th.

"I might've made some other people mad that I was up there 18 laps down or whatever racing, but they've got to recognize that I'm trying to work for sponsorships and trying to get stuff sold so I can be out there and make the series stronger," Busch said. "That was the whole goal in Daytona. Here this weekend it's going to be the same thing. We're just going to go out there and do what we can, try to sit on a pole and win the race in the truck."

And when that's off the list, Busch looks for his other No. 18 hat and goes to work on his Cup car.

Heading into Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500, Busch's Joe Gibbs Racing team is 12th in the standings, 131 points behind series leader Kevin Harvick. He'll start second.