Kurt Busch is going home this weekend.

It won't be like going to Zephyrhills, Fla., where David Reutimann is from, or heading to Mark Martin's hometown of Batesville, Ark.

Busch and his racing brother, Kyle, are from Las Vegas, and the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 will be run Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

"It is definitely a unique city to represent as my hometown," Busch said Tuesday during the NASCAR teleconference. "My family is from the suburbs of Chicago, and when they moved out there in the early '70s, there was nothing there. It was a small gas stop between Salt Lake and L.A. To see the town develop and turn into the gaming mecca that it is and the entertainment capital of the world, I never knew anything different."

Busch, the 2004 Cup champion who is 19th in the standings after two races this season in the No. 2 Dodge, says he had a normal childhood, but living in Las Vegas prepared him for Nextel Cup racing.

"I thought Columbus, Ohio, was the same thing, or Oxford, Maine, was the same as well," he said. "To travel now and be on the road as much as I am, it definitely makes me miss Vegas because of how upbeat it is, how 24-7 the town is. You're either swallowed or you keep digging hard because you're going to get swallowed up. That was almost the mentality I brought to the racetrack when I first started. I was just trying to say afloat.

"There was a city outside of Las Vegas. Everybody just thinks of Vegas as the Strip and the glitter and glamour, but there is a decent school system there. I graduated from high school with honors, and while I was doing that I was probably rolling around in my Volkswagen Bug up and down the Strip with my buddies hanging out the windows and sun roof. We did the normal things as well. It just seemed like there was more neon around us."

A win Sunday would be special.

"You know, if I was to win on Sunday, I'd come unglued," Busch said. "I used to haul through that desert parking lot before the big track even existed after a race at the local short track. I saw the track built from the ground up. With the track being completely redesigned now, it'd be extra special to win this weekend. Vegas is No. 1 on my hit list right now."

Stremme focused

David Stremme, driver of the No. 40 Dodge, is 10th in the standings after two races after an up-and-down rookie season in 2006 in which he wound up 33rd in the standings.

Stremme spent a good portion of last season outside the top 35 in owners' points and had to qualify for races on speed.

"Knowing the feeling of being outside the top 35 for two or three months last year . . . it's not a situation I want to be in again," Stremme said Tuesday.

"It made me a better racer and better qualifier, but when we look at the beginning of this season and where we are sitting in points, we can't have any bad races because it is still really tight. Anybody outside the top 30 or 35 can't have any DNFs or any more bad races because it will put them out for a while."

Pit stops

• Ken Erickson, of Loveland, already is a big winner, and the green flag hasn't dropped yet for Sunday's race. Erickson was the winner of the WIX Filters "Party Like a Rock Star" sweepstakes. He and three guests, with $14,000 of prize money in hand, will be escorted from a hotel on the Strip to Las Vegas Motor Speedway in a helicopter, where they will have garage, Victory Lane and suite tickets.

• Sunday marks the 10th Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which underwent an offseason overhaul with increased banking, new garages and a relocated pit road at the 1 1/2-mile oval. There are a few drivers who hit the jackpot at the city's old track. Jimmie Johnson has two consecutive wins and three top fives, Matt Kenseth has two victories, three top fives and four tops 10s, and Jeff Burton has two wins, three top fives and six top 10s.

• Owners Ray Evernham and Jack Roush lost their appeals of the points penalties issued by NASCAR against drivers Kasey Kahne and Matt Kenseth for rules violations discovered in Daytona 500 qualifying inspections. The teams lost 50 driver- and car-owner points. Neither team appealed the four-race suspensions of crew chiefs Kenny Francis (Kahne) or Robbie Reiser (Kenseth).

• Martin is leading the points standings, Joe Nemechek is seventh, which is his highest standing ever in 14 seasons, and Sterling Marlin is 25th. All three veteran racers are driving for Ginn Racing. "We always thought of ourselves as a diamond-in-the-rough kind of team," general manager Jay Frye said. "Now, the diamond has a little shine to it."

• Let's hope that Colorado lawmakers and International Speedway Corp. can be courteous when talks heat up about possibly building a track in the Denver area. Washington lawmakers have been speaking out loudly against ISC's bid to construct a track in the Seattle area. State Rep. Larry Seaquist was the latest to offer derogatory comments about NASCAR and its fans. "These people are not the kind you would want living next to you," he said. "They'd be the ones with the junky cars in their front yards and would try to slip around the law." Seaquist defended his remarks by saying he was talking about ISC and not NASCAR fans. According to published reports, Seaquist claims ISC wants to build a track without paying taxes.

Inside line: Martin Truex Jr.

Two-time Busch Series champion Martin Truex Jr. finished his rookie Nextel Cup season last year with a career-best second-place finish at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The Dale Earnhardt Inc. driver recently answered questions from Rocky Mountain News NASCAR reporter Jim Benton.

• If racing hadn't worked out: I would probably be working in my father's fishing business.

• Greatest influence: My dad. He taught me how to hunt and got me into racing.

• Person in history you'd most like to meet: Any great leaders of the past would be cool to meet. People like JFK and George Washington.

• Change you'd make in Nextel Cup: The only thing I would change about Nextel Cup racing would be to shorten the schedule by a couple of races.

• Most famous person you've met: I met Will Ferrell when Talladega Nights was coming out.

• Last book you read: The Old Man and the Sea, but it's been awhile ago.

• Favorite sports teams: Philadelphia Eagles, Phillies, Flyers and 76ers.

• Favorite movies: The Big Lebowski and The Ladies Man.

• Beach or mountains: I like both the mountains and the beach. You can go deep-sea fishing off the coast and hunting in the mountains.

bentonj@RockyMountainNews.com

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