Kyle Busch was the Raybestos® Rookie of the Race in the Sam's Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He finished 15th and has taken top rookie honors in all three races this season. Busch holds a seven point advantage (37-30) over Paul Menard in the Raybestos® Rookie standings.
Busch is the only Raybestos® Rookie in the Busch Series with a top-10 finish. He scored a seventh place finish in the Goody's Headache Powders 200 at North Carolina Speedway. He has scored four top-10 finishes in his 10-race Busch Series career entering the Darlington 200, his first of the 2004 season and fourth of his nine-race Busch Series career.
Busch ranks 12th in Busch Series points, 15 behind 11th place Ron Hornaday Jr. and has a 25-point advantage over 13th place Kenny Wallace. Busch is the only Raybestos® Rookie in the top-20 in series points and the only first-year driver to score a top-10 finish.
Entering the Darlington event, three Busch Series drivers have competed in both Busch Series races this season: Kyle Busch, Paul Menard, and Donnie Neuenberger.
DARLINGTON RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE TIDBITS
Busch scored his best career Busch Series finish at Darlington. He finished second, 1.977 seconds behind Brian Vickers. Busch also led the race once for six laps. He is the only Raybestos® Rookie entered at Darlington that started a Busch Series event at the 1.366-mile speedway in 2003.
No Raybestos® Rookie led a lap at Darlington in 2003. Coy Gibbs posted the best finish by a Raybestos® Rookie, a 14th place effort, in the March race.
DID YOU KNOW? The most recent Raybestos® Rookie to lead a lap at Darlington is P.J. Jones in the March race in 2000. He led the event once for four laps. More impressive about Jones' accomplishment was the fact that 11 Raybestos® Rookies started the race.
Only three Raybestos® Rookies have scored top-10 finishes in the last eight races at Darlington. The best effort was by Ron Hornaday who finished eighth in March 2000. Kevin Harvick finished 10th in September 2000 while Scott Riggs placed 10th in the September 2002 event. In fact, Riggs was the most recent Raybestos® Rookie to finish on the lead lap in a Busch Series race at Darlington (three races ago).
RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER POINT STANDINGS
DRIVER POINTS
Kyle Busch 37
Paul Menard 30
Donnie Neuenberger 24
Rick Markle 9
J. J. Yeley 9
Billy Parker 8
Stan Boyd 1
Kevin Conway 1
Brian Conz 1
Clint Bowyer 0
HIGHEST FINISHING RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE BY RACE
EVENT HIGHEST FINISHING ROOKIE
Hershey's Kisses 300 Kyle Busch, 24th
Goody's Headache Powder 200 Kyle Busch, seventh
Sam's Town 300 Kyle Busch, 15th
