Busch happy to participate in Chase media day

NEW YORK -- For some drivers in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Wednesday's stop at the London Hotel in Manhattan for Chase media day seemed little more than a distraction in between this past Saturday's race at Richmond and this Sunday's race at New Hampshire.

They did their duty, and tried to look happy about it.

Then there was Kyle Busch, who clearly was genuinely enjoying himself. As he sat down for his group session with the media, he pulled out a Flip camera and started joking about filming footage with his "Kyle Cam."

Missing the Chase will do strange things to people. Busch said he actually learned last year -- when he finished 13th in the Cup point standings -- that being just on the outside looking in at the 12 Chase qualifiers this time of year is even less fun than engaging in sometimes testy sessions with the media.

"I didn't have much going on [last year at this time]. No Kyle Cam. There was no TV show following me," Busch said. "But there also wasn't much to do. It was pretty disappointing, pretty disheartening. You're sitting at home thinking, 'Wow. I could be in New York doing all the Chase media stuff. How I would love to be doing all that.' Well, I'll tell you what, I found out I like doing it a whole lot more than sitting at home doing nothing.

"You fight every day of your year to make the Chase, and this is a part of that. This is all part of fighting to get to the point where you can fight some more through the last 10 weeks against the best in racing."

Busch, the No. 4 seed heading into the 10-race Chase, was second in points behind Kevin Harvick before the standings were reset. But he is, in fact, tied with Harvick now -- each with three wins and the 30 Chase bonus points that come with them. The only drivers they currently are looking up at in the standings are top-seed Denny Hamlin, who registered six victories and 60 bonus points; and No. 2-seed and four-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson, with his five wins and 50 bonus points.

Having won the Nationwide Series championship last year, Busch said he's never been more ready to make a run at a title. And at least he's in the hunt this year, after failing to make the Chase at all last year for the first time since his first full Cup season in 2005.

"Contending for the Nationwide championship last year really has helped me this year," Busch said. "There wasn't really a Chase-type playoff format, but for us it was more about learning what it takes week in and week out to compete for a championship, to keep the championship season going.

"We had some bad weeks that kind of closed the gap back up, and then we kind of had some good weeks that stretched it back out. Good weeks are what matter most in this deal. Right now if I could take five top-five and five top-10 finishes in the Chase, I'd take it and go to the house. I'd bet that would probably win it."

In other words, Busch said he has learned to take what he can get on bad days and not push too hard for wins on days when his car is good but maybe not quite good enough to get to Victory Lane. It's called part of the maturation process all young drivers must go through.

Busch has sometimes feuded with Hamlin, his teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing. But Hamlin said he has come to appreciate Busch for the hard-driving racer that he is. Hamlin said Busch definitely is better prepared than ever to compete for a Cup championship this season in part because he actually is racing less than in years past.

Despite being the defending Nationwide champion and winning a remarkable 10 races in that series this year, Busch resisted the urge to run it full-time again -- or at least resisted the urge after his bosses at JGR told him no.

"I think, one [advantage for Busch] will be not running Nationwide races on companion events," Hamlin said. "I believe that it takes away from his efforts on the Cup side, and I think that was a smart move to concentrate on the Cup races during those weekends. So I think he's better prepared as far as that's concerned, and I think he's a better driver than he was two years ago.

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"I think I've helped him a tremendous amount on the short track, and I know he's helped me a tremendous amount on the big tracks. That's why you see him and me always going back and forth. You've got so much competitive juices flowing there and two guys who are trying to fuel each other, sometimes you're going to collide."

Hamlin said he can only imagine the disappointment Busch endured last year at this time -- when Busch was sitting at home during Chase media day instead of being given the privilege to participate in it like Wednesday.

"I've been fortunate enough to make it every year and I haven't had to go through missing it and kind of becoming irrelevant, I guess you could say," a smiling Hamlin said. "So for myself, it's tough for me to know what it feels like and be a good judge of that. But I can't imagine not being a part of the Chase. You learn to appreciate things a whole lot more when you miss out on 'em."

Through disappointment often comes useful change, however. Busch said that is what happened when he missed the Chase last year and the decision was made to bring Dave Rogers on as his Cup crew chief in place of Steve Addington.

"I think the biggest week of disappointment for me was this week last year, not making the Chase and ultimately coming up with the decision that we needed to make a change," Busch said. "I thought Steve was a great car guy and knew a lot about the car and how to get it to go fast, but sometimes we would struggle here or there and we wouldn't fix those struggles through practice or points in the race. We wouldn't really be able to get better.

"This year has been a lot different with Dave. We've been able to put stuff together to where we've been able to come back and be better. Qualifying 32nd and coming back to finish second at Richmond was a pretty good jump, and falling back as far as 25th in the race at Atlanta and coming back to finish fifth was pretty good, too. So we've been able to have some good comebacks this year. To have a good team and to have a good leader help you through those points are what makes the most out of a championship season."

He sure was glad to talk about it at length Wednesday, perhaps yet another sign of maturity that might serve him well in this Chase.

Related:
• Menzer: Busch, Hamlin have matured into serious title threats