ROUNDUP Racing news and notes

Nice reward: The one person on Kyle Busch's mind as he drove toward his first NASCAR Nextel Cup victory last Sunday night at California Speedway was his grandmother, who was home watching the Sony HD 500 on television. "I was nervous at the end, but grandma, she probably was 50 million times worse than I was inside the race car," the 20-year-old Las Vegas native said after becoming the youngest driver to win in NASCAR's top series. Busch, the younger brother of reigning Cup champion Kurt Busch, said he was thinking about how nervous his grandmother gets and how tough it must have been on her as he battled to hold off his older brother, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle and others late in the race. He remembered to say hello to her during the postrace TV interview. "I had to say something. I remember watching Kurt race in the truck series days and when he first started in Cup and ... sitting there with my grandmother," Busch said. "We would be watching, I would be cheering him on. And, if something bad happened or a caution came out and he's leading or something like that, she would throw her arms up in the air: 'Gosh darn it, what are we going to do here? Let's get something to go right here once in a while.' I knew her nerves were just absolutely rolling when I was out there leading. I just wanted to tell her I knew that and I was thinking of her during the race and I knew how I was feeling in the race car and how she was [feeling] sitting at home. I bet she wasn't even sitting. The dogs were probably barking and she's probably wore out right now."
Nice reward: The one person on Kyle Busch's mind as he drove toward his first NASCAR Nextel Cup victory last Sunday night at California Speedway was his grandmother, who was home watching the Sony HD 500 on television. "I was nervous at the end, but grandma, she probably was 50 million times worse than I was inside the race car," the 20-year-old Las Vegas native said after becoming the youngest driver to win in NASCAR's top series. Busch, the younger brother of reigning Cup champion Kurt Busch, said he was thinking about how nervous his grandmother gets and how tough it must have been on her as he battled to hold off his older brother, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle and others late in the race. He remembered to say hello to her during the postrace TV interview. "I had to say something. I remember watching Kurt race in the truck series days and when he first started in Cup and ... sitting there with my grandmother," Busch said. "We would be watching, I would be cheering him on. And, if something bad happened or a caution came out and he's leading or something like that, she would throw her arms up in the air: 'Gosh darn it, what are we going to do here? Let's get something to go right here once in a while.' I knew her nerves were just absolutely rolling when I was out there leading. I just wanted to tell her I knew that and I was thinking of her during the race and I knew how I was feeling in the race car and how she was [feeling] sitting at home. I bet she wasn't even sitting. The dogs were probably barking and she's probably wore out right now."
Stepping up: Sarah McCune will take a big step this week toward realizing a childhood dream of racing in the Indianapolis 500 when she makes her debut in the developmental Menards Infiniti Pro Series at Chicagoland Speedway. The 26-year-old McCune, the 1991 national quarter midget champion who has gone on to compete in a number of series and earn two degrees from Indiana University, will drive for Sam Schmidt Motorsports in the 67-lap Chicagoland 100 on Sunday. "I know that the team is so qualified, and I have a lot of confidence in them and they have confidence in me," McCune said. "That's important for any team-driver combination to be successful." The Perrysburg, Ohio, native has had her share of success, but it's also been a long and winding road since attending her first motorsports event "when I probably was 5." "After the races I immediately climbed into a car," McCune said. "We have a picture of me in the car with a big grin on my face like, 'I want to do this; this is fun.' When I saw that kids were racing quarter midgets, I begged my dad to let me start racing, and he eventually gave in."