NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

He’s been doing those weekend double- and tripleheaders for several seasons now, so it’s nothing new for him to be in a car and doing the thing he loves best, all weekend long. Business as usual.

Except this year, there’s a lot of extra things for him to concentrate on: ownership of a Camping World Truck Series team of Toyota Tundras, his recent engagement and, oh yeah, figuring out how to get in that Chase and keep Jimmie Johnson a four-time series champion in 2010.

On that last point, Busch has already made some adjustments, at least on a personal level.

Asked what he needs to do differently to keep Johnson from grabbing one for the thumb in 2010, he considers a moment before replying.

“I can try to communicate better with the crew chief – try to give him some more feedback on what the car is doing, what we need to do, what I’m feeling, what I’m not feeling that I need to be feeling in the car,” he says. “Of course, trying to stay more even-keyed during the race and not getting so hyped up when things go wrong or when we miss a lug (nut) or have to come down pit road – just kind of going forward and getting back to racing.”

Sounds like he’s thought a bit about that over the offseason. Calming down inside the car is one of the things that he’s doing – no matter whether it’s in a Camry or Tundra.

“We had problems late last year on a couple pit stops on the Nationwide and then in the Truck stuff, too,” says Busch. “It’s over, it’s done with, you’re not going to fix it and you have to move forward and try to come back through the field and come back towards the front.”

Just as happened to his former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Tony Stewart, Busch is up to his neck in details revolving around his new race team, Kyle Busch Motorsports, which will field multiple Tundras in 2010.

“I’ve learned about 30 new lessons in just the last 30 days,” he said at Daytona. “It’s been crazy. Just the way that NASCAR works, all the things you have to deal with on that front. All the stuff you have to deal with as a team owner with all the personnel, the chain of command and stuff like that. It’s about building up a lot of things, besides race trucks, but building a lot of things has brought a lot to my attention.”

For a driver who spends his time running between cars and trucks, racing as much as he can, that has to be a change of life, at the very least. But the fact that he signed a contract extension with JGR in the offseason has to help that transition.

“We’ve got a lot of expectations to live up to,” Busch says of 2010 and beyond. “As far as the new contract goes, it’s really nothing different than what I had before. It’s a multi-year deal and something that shows our commitment to Joe Gibbs Racing for the years down the road.”

JGR owners Joe and J.D. Gibbs were both committed to making sure Busch stayed put with them, and Busch says it was an easy sell.

“There wasn’t much convincing needed,” he shrugs. “Really, we struggled a little bit through (2009) and unfortunately missed the Chase. I see the organization as strong. I see how Joey (Logano) really came along towards the end of the year and got a lot better. I see the way Denny (Hamlin) ran. I mean, shoot, he had a shot to win the championship and be a legitimate threat. Our stuff is there. It’s just a matter of having the right people in the right place. Hopefully, Dave (Rogers, crew chief) is that guy, and he and I can really develop a great relationship like Denny (Hamlin) and Mike Ford (Denny Hamlin crew chief) have and we can go forward and try to win races.”

Busch and his new Sprint Cup crew chief might be only two points races into their 2010 season together, but they did get some good experience together at the end of last season, when Rogers climbed on top of the box for the last three races.

“We learned some valuable lessons the last few races of last season,” Rogers says. “For example, we almost got a win at Texas, which would’ve been great, but the lessons were learned about fuel mileage strategy. We knew we were gambling. There was no question about it. We gambled and it didn’t pay off. We came back to the shop and got to evaluate, ‘OK, why didn’t it work? What did we do wrong?’ Carl Edwards has done it on a number of occasions, so we know it’s possible.

“Things like that gave us a great opportunity to look at our program and make it better than before. We had similar lessons that weren’t as magnified at Phoenix and Homestead, and it provided some really good discussions this off-season. I think this season is going to be a lot of fun.”

Two races in, Busch is 13th in the Sprint Cup standings – just one point behind the reigning champ, Johnson, in 12th. Like any good team leader, Rogers has a goal in mind for the No. 18 M&M’S Toyota Camry.

“Priority one is the Chase,” he says. “We’re going to look at it as two seasons. There’s the pre-Chase season and then there’s the Chase. We set some goals for the first 26 races. Kyle (Busch) and I sat down and talked about what we want to accomplish throughout those races. If we can meet those goals, to get into the Chase, then once we meet that point we’ll set some new goals. We’re not going to try to get too far ahead of ourselves and set ourselves up for disappointment.”

As has been proven over and over, the real test is not the competition, but the communication, and that’s where Rogers and Busch are a bit short of the other top teams.

“My biggest goal right now is to get to know Kyle (Busch) and understand what makes him upset, what holds him back,” Rogers says. “All drivers get upset on the radio and I think the crew chief, if they handle themselves the right way, can reign them back in. There’s going to be times that I’m just going to have to let him go and be Kyle. And there’s times that I’m going to have to step up and say, ‘Hey, stop.’

“I think the relationship needs to be where Kyle respects me enough to allow me to do that. Yeah, I’m soft-spoken, but I have my limit. Kyle knows it and I think he respects that. Likewise, I know Kyle has his limit and I can’t push him too far also. We have to learn each other and figure out what makes each other intense.”

Intensity is a good thing in a driver and crew chief, and the fact that there’s a huge bulls-eye painted on the four-time defending series champ helps focus that intensity.

Busch has, for lack of a better term, grown up a lot since the end of the 2009 season, and with his future set with Toyota and JGR, he’s ready to make some noise – in an entirely different way than has sometimes been the case in the past.

This year, he won’t defend his Nationwide Series title, and will instead run only a partial schedule in that series. Sprint Cup is the priority, but what he achieved in the Nationwide Series is something he hopes he can carry forward to the next level.

“I’m glad I could actually win a championship last year and say, ‘Yeah, it can be done, I’ve done it.’ I just haven’t done it at the level that I need to do it yet,” Busch says. “We need to get ourselves in position to do that this year. By keeping myself in that position and getting the team in that position and rebuilding towards finishing in those top-five and top-10 spots more often -- then it will get done.”