This week: After becoming the “Toyota Terror” with an impressive performance in the Daytona 500, Kyle Busch heads to the scene of his first career Cup victory. He won the 2005 Labor Day weekend race for his first career victory in the series. “We ran in the top five all day long, but we really didn’t think we had a winning car,” Busch recalled of that first win. “When we got the lead a few times throughout the race, we just pulled away and led by quite a bit. It was really cool to have a really dominant race car. I remember having to drive the car really loose. That was the loosest I think I’ve ever driven a race car that was still moving forward. … But it was fast.” In addition to that victory, Busch also has two top-five and five top-10 finishes in seven starts at California. “It’s just a fun place to race,” he said. “It is wide-open racing and you can run from top to bottom. With the new car, we had a great test out there and the car handled well. We feel like we can make some changes on it, still, and make it even better. We want to get the car close to the best car out there, which was Denny (Hamlin).”

Last week: Busch had the dominant car in the Daytona 500 and led eight times for 86 laps. The next closest driver was Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin, who led five times for 32 laps. But at the end of the race, Busch got lost in the shuffle and, after dropping below the yellow line, had to give back the position to keep from being black-flagged. By the time he got back to the front, it was too late to help teammate Tony Stewart on the last lap. Busch finished fourth. “We had the dominant car all day long,” Busch said. “I could hold it wide open every single lap of the race. It’s frustrating to come home fourth, but that’s a part of the Daytona 500 when you run as good as we had all day long. Those guys couldn’t keep up with us, but there were all of those cautions at the end that propelled them forward enough in order to get them ahead. The guys at the engine shop gave us some great horsepower.”

Etc.: Busch has high hopes of Toyota success through the 2008 season. “I’m going to give it until May until we can truly judge how things are going with our team and with the switch to Toyota,” he said. “I think if we wait until May, when we can get more testing done and Mark Cronquist (JGR head engine builder) and his guys get more time to develop the motor, I think we are going to be really good. Right now, I think we are good with what Toyota is giving us. But once we get building more stuff on our own, we are going to get even better.”

Hookscenter.com wire report.