NASCAR champ Kyle Busch returns to his short track roots

It was a few minutes before 3 p.m. Wednesday when a racing driver wearing a pristine white firesuit climbed under his late model stock car and started poking around.

But this was no ordinary racing driver.

This was Kyle Busch, the reigning and two-time NASCAR champion from Las Vegas, one of the very best to have ever turned a wheel.

It was akin to finding LeBron James working on his crossover dribble at a local schoolyard, or Mike Trout shagging fly balls on at a pockmarked Pony League diamond.

Busch is stepping away from NASCAR’s bright lights to run under less luminous ones at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Bullring Thursday night. He will drive in a late model race against some of the top sportsman drivers from the West Coast, including some from his hometown.

Guys who have reached his lofty pinnacle talk about giving back and remembering roots. But Busch driving against amateurs, or close to it, goes beyond that.

“This is where I grew up, being at the Bullring, coming out to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for years racing Legends cars, late models and that sort,” said NASCAR’s all-time winningest driver over its three primary disciplines (Truck Series, Xfinity, Cup).

“I’ve always told the track (officials), look, you guys put a race on the pavement track, I’ll bring my stuff out here on NASCAR weekend. They finally did, and here we are. We’re looking forward to hanging out with some of the locals who have raced here before, guys who I’ve raced with and against when I was younger, and also some of the newer guys who are the heat right now.”

He’s even familiar with some of the names of the current hotshots.

“You look at a guy like Derek Thorn, he’s probably going to be the guy to beat,” Busch said of the Lakeport, California, driver and two-time NASCAR K&N Pro Series West champion.

Busch will trade paint in a 100-lap race at 7 p.m. preceding the Star Nursery 150 ARCA Menards Series West race at 8. He will sign autographs along with the regional hotshots from 5:30-6:30 p.m.

While it wouldn’t be surprising if some of the late model drivers ask for his autograph before the race fans arrive, Busch said he isn’t expecting many to take liberties racing him.

“What’s interesting is this is the only place that has ever happened to me,” he said about other sportsman races he has run after striking NASCAR paydirt. “It was a guy who came from out of town and had a vendetta. Everybody (else) has always tried to race me with respect, and I’ve tried to do the same wherever I’ve gone.”

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.