CONCORD, N.C. -- Five months ago, Kyle Busch sat at a table in the front of the media center at Charlotte Motor Speedway and lamented the fact that he ever got into the Camping World Truck Series as an owner.

Thursday in the same setting, he celebrated the fact that his state-of-the-art Kyle Busch Motorsports shop finally opened in Mooresville, N.C. But when he finished talking about all the goods he sold in the KBM gift shop, he admitted times remain difficult for his fledgling truck operation -- and that it still faces an uncertain future beyond this season.

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I've got the land all around the building. I've got the acreage there in order to flip the building and add on more. I can become a Hendrick Motorsports if it ever came to that one day. Obviously, situations have to be right and you have to have long-term deals in order to commit that far ahead in advance. With the truck stuff right now, as we've seen, it's hard to commit to the next week.

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-- KYLE BUSCH

"As far as what we can report now, as far as going forward, I have been successful in selling five races for next year in the Truck Series. I won't announce who yet, but that will come probably in the next week or two," Busch said. "We're in contract mode, so that's awesome.

"Unfortunately it is only five races, but the good news is that it is five races and we're at least taking steps in the right direction. We've had a lot of other positive talks; it's just that nothing has ever made it to the contract phase. This is the first one I've been able to get to go that far. We're still working hard and trying to get there."

For an organization that began this year with plans to run two trucks full-time and hopefully add a third before the season was over, Thursday's grand opening of the new KBM shop had to be a little bittersweet. Busch never did find funding for a third truck and even lost funding for his second, shutting it down in July.

Despite all that, Busch admitted that Thursday's long-anticipated grand opening was mostly sweet. The building has been in the works for three years, and had been delayed by construction difficulties.

"As far as Kyle Busch Motorsports goes, it was a great opening day for us. I'm really proud of the turnout that we had up there," Busch said. "[Wednesday] we had people show up at 8 a.m., knocking on the doors wanting in, wanting a sneak peek. We told them, 'No, it's [Thursday].' And they go, 'Yeah, we know it's [Thursday].' They camped out all day; they were there the whole day [Wednesday] and then again [Thursday] morning.

"We were sold out of our 200 passes for autographs [Thursday] morning well within 20 minutes or so. I was really, really pumped about that opportunity for the fans to come out and help us with our grand opening and make it a really neat event for everybody -- for all our sponsors, our partners that we've had this year on the Truck Series side and the new building."

It was enough to make him forget about the challenges he has faced in his first year as an owner in the Truck Series -- if only for a little while. His Sprint Cup Series teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, Denny Hamlin, said Busch's struggles as a new owner have cured him of any fever he may have once had about possibly following in his teammate's footsteps.

"For sure it makes you think twice [about being an owner], especially in this day and age," Hamlin said. "You've got two top programs in the Truck Series in KHI [Kevin Harvick Inc.] and Kyle's deal that are struggling to find sponsorship. I'm sure their asking prices are reasonable and things like that -- and they win races and go for championships. Yet they still have a tough time finding sponsorship.

"We see it over on our Gibbs teams on the Nationwide [Series] side. We have a tough time filling sponsorships. I think it's just part of what's going on these days, so, yeah, it would make me shy away from being an owner right now."

Nonetheless, Busch talks as if he plans to ride it out. He said he still has lofty hopes for KBM in the not-too-distant future.

"I think the possibilities are endless at Kyle Busch Motorsports," Busch said, citing the fact that he owns plenty of land around the new building that is LEED-certified -- the first "green" building in the motorsports industry that he knows of.

"I've got the land all around the building," Busch added. "I've got the acreage there in order to flip the building and add on more. I can become a Hendrick Motorsports if it ever came to that one day. Obviously, situations have to be right and you have to have long-term deals in order to commit that far ahead in advance. With the truck stuff right now, as we've seen, it's hard to commit to the next week."

Busch said he uses fellow Cup driver Harvick's operation as an example of what he would like KBM to become.

"I know he's kind of said that he would like or his goal in the next couple years is to see two trucks and two Nationwide teams. My goal at KBM is to try to get two truck teams going -- if not for next year, for the following season," Busch said. "And eventually we could be where it's two Nationwide teams and a Truck team or a Nationwide team and two Truck teams.

"As it stands right now, I'll continue to drive for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Nationwide Series. We'll work on some other things as far as some other drivers go on that front if it ever comes to fruition."

All it takes is money. At least he made some at KBM's grand opening Thursday.

"Our retail store was full at the beginning of the day," Busch said. "It's almost empty now -- so that's a good problem to have."