Catchfence

Even before the 2008 season ended, Kyle Busch already was making plans for the 2009 Nationwide Series campaign. Despite missing five of the 35 races that year, he still wound up sixth in the final standings, which got him and owners J.D. and Joe Gibbs to thinking last fall.

“It was probably October of last year or something like that, Charlotte time, where I just told Joe and J.D.,” Busch said. “I said, we made a mistake on not going after it this year and completing the deal and running all the races. Mathematically I could have won by 19 points last year, but that’s last year, it doesn’t matter. I told all these guys we need to go for it, our cars are capable of doing it and we got the sponsorship and funding.”

Kyle Busch put his lead out of reach by taking advantage of a Lap 3 crash by Carl Edwards at Michigan.

J.D. Gibbs’ biggest concern wasn’t whether Busch could run up front. He wanted to make sure Busch wouldn’t wear down driving more than 80 races in Cup, Nationwide and the Truck Series throughout the course of the 10-month season.

With a total of 20 wins, including nine of the Nationwide variety, perhaps Gibbs needn’t have worried. Busch added 11 second-place runs and his total of 5,682 points was the most for any driver in a single Nationwide season.

- NASCAR.com