What: Fall Classic Presented by Bank of America
When: Friday and Saturday
Where: The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Tickets: $20 each day or $30 for two-day pass; 644-4444, www.lvms.com
As a full-time driver in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series, Kyle Busch is handsomely compensated to strap himself into a race car and go fast.
Busch insists he races for the love of the sport, not the money, and he intends to prove it this weekend. In addition to racing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, the Busch Series and the Nextel Cup Series events at Phoenix International Raceway, Busch will jet to his hometown Saturday evening and drive in a 140-lap Super Late Models race at the Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The $5,000 first prize - if he is fortunate enough to win it - won't cover the expenses of hauling his cars from North Carolina to Las Vegas and back. But that's not the point, he said.
"We love racing and that's what we're here to do , so we're going to have some fun," he said.
Busch, 22, is fourth in points in the Nextel Cup standings and is only 158 points out of third place with two races remaining. Although his goal is to finish third and give team owner Rick Hendrick a 1-2-3 finish in points (teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon are first and second), Busch said competing in four races in three days will not serve as a distraction.
"You can get burned out pretty easily , but I feel like I'm young enough and everything where I can have a good time still and be able to do all I want to do," he said. "It's another way to keep your mind off (the points battle)."
Keeping busy, he added, "is good for me."
If there's any question whether Busch can maintain his focus on the racetrack, all one has to do is look at his finishes during the past eight Chase for the Nextel Cup races as he winds up his career with Hendrick Motorsports and prepares to join Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008. Excluding two races in which Busch was involved in accidents and another in which a bad pit stop led to a 20th-place result, Busch has finishes of fourth, fifth, third, fourth and fourth.
"If it wasn't for some of those (problems), we'd be right there contending for this (championship)," he said.
Coming home
Jace Meier, who started his stock-car racing career at The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, will return to the track with an unusual sponsor for this weekend's Fall Classic.
Meier, a freshmen in Belmont Abbey College's Honors Institute and Motorsports Management program, will be promoting the college's "got monks?" campaign on the High Point Racing Late Models car he will drive in Saturday night's 100-lap main event.
Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, N.C., is using the quirky campaign to draw attention to its Motorsports Management program - the first of its kind in the country. The college was founded 131 years ago by Benedictine monks and its monastery still is home to 20 monks.
Meier, 18, is a graduate of Spring Valley High School, where he served as senior class president. He raced for Tim Huddleston's High Point Racing team at Irwindale Speedway in Southern California this year and finished second in the championship and earned Rookie of the Year honors in the Late Models division.
Switching gears
National Hot Rod Association Top Fuel drivers J.R. Todd and Morgan Lucas will team with off-road racers John Spar and Ed Hullinger and drive a segment in the 40th annual Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 desert race next week.
Todd and Lucas will drive the first 200 miles of the 1,296-mile course, which snakes down the Baja California peninsula from Ensenada to Cabo San Lucas, before turning the duty of driving the Class 1 Chevy-powered open-wheel desert race car to Spar and Hullinger.
"Hopefully, we'll come out in one piece along with the race car and , who knows, maybe we'll finish off with a top-five finish," said Todd, who finished seventh in Top Fuel points this season.
"My main goal is to go out and complete the race and have some fun. It will be quite the experience, I'm sure, that I will be talking about it for many years to come."
The Baja 1000 begins Tuesday morning in Ensenada. All race vehicles will have a 53-hour time limit to finish the race.
Among the nearly 450 entries for the legendary race are 31 Nevada racers, including NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular Brendan Gaughan.
75
Number of A-feature events contested during the 2007 World of Outlaws season.
71
Number of top-10 finishes this season for Outlaws points champion Donny Schatz, who also had a series-leading 19 A-feature wins.
"It's still close, but they're spanking us. They're putting it to us (and) I don't like it."
Four-time NASCAR Cup champion Jeff Gordon on Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson, who has won three races in a row and leads Gordon by 30 points with two races remaining in the Nextel Cup Series season.
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