Sporting News, The: Busch has both eyes on the prize: Kurt Busch heated up at this time last year, t

Kurt Busch has monovision. He is nearsighted in one eye and farsighted in the other. The result in the racecar is nothing short of amazing: He can see, in focus, a car 6 inches ahead of him. At the same time, he can see, with the same clarity, a turn (or a car or a wreck or whatever) several hundred yards ahead of him.

His ability to race the same way--with short-term goals perfectly in line with long-term goals--makes him a favorite to defend his Nextel Cup championship. Especially now. Busch has been on fire, with four top 10s in the past five races. He got hot at the same time last year and rode the momentum to his first championship.

If his title run last year proved anything, it was that the Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup is about persevering, not dominating. A driver must deal with short-term problems without jeopardizing long-term goals, and nobody does that better than Busch.

But he hasn't always been able to drive looking (or thinking or caring) further ahead than the lap he was on. When he broke into Nextel Cup full time in 2001, he tried to run the fastest lap possible every single time. The solution to every problem, even if there was no problem, was to mash the gas.

Then Roush Racing teammate Matt Kenseth won the championship in 2003 by being just good enough, just patient enough, week after week. Busch watched and learned.

Really, the change in Busch couldn't have been more stark. He is an airballer who becomes a deadeye, a free swinger one year who leads the league in walks the next, a hockey player from 2004 who, um, skates in 2005.

Busch now sees that prudent short-term solutions lead to long-term success. If a short-term solution--driving too hard to make up a lap, stretching tires, gambling on fuel--threatens the long-term goal, he doesn't do it.

It's a good thing he has developed the patience to deal with short-term problems because he and his crew get the team into a lot of them. At the most recent Nextel Cup race, at Pocono, his pit crew took the week off, and clowns filled in. (Allegedly.) Given the team's lug nut problems, its stops should have been set to circus music. I might have imagined it, but a crew member served Busch water through a trick flower on his lapel. Yet Busch made up all of the lost time on the track, picking off cars one at a time, muscling his No. 97 Ford to his second win of the season.

Early in the year, Busch told me his short-term goals were to improve at intermediate tracks and start the Chase higher in points than he did last season. Too many intermediate tracks remain to assess his success on that goal, but he's higher in the points now than he was at this time last year.

His long-term goal, of course, is to defend his title. Every time Busch pulls a good finish out of a bad situation, that comes more into focus.

speed reads

Give Rusty Wallace credit for sticking to his retirement announcement. He wavered early in the season, but now he's sure. He says if he were to come back, he'd be ripping off fans who bought his farewell merchandise. Great googily moogily, an athlete thinking about the fans!

Jeff Gordon is 15th in points but first in earnings. I'd explain that if I had the faintest idea how to.

Kasey Kahne needs to break out of his sophomore slump. The other teams have figured out the new Dodge Charger. The No. 9 team has to catch up.

INSIDE DISH

Expect drivers to be extra cautious with their transmissions when the circuit goes to Watkins Glen for the August 14 race. Many drivers--including Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart--had problems in June at the previous road course, Infineon Raceway. > What did drivers do on their weekend off? Name an exotic island, and there probably was a driver on it. Kurt Busch had plans to go to Budapest to watch a Formula 1 race. Some drivers stayed stateside to work. Rusty Wallace competed in a Busch Series race. It's not as if he could skip the Wallace Family Tribute 250, which was held just outside his hometown of St. Louis. His brother Mike finished second; Rusty and Kenny Wallace finished 37th and 24th. > Because of their Indiana backgrounds, Gordon and Stewart will get all of the attention at the Brickyard this weekend, but don't count out Evernham Motorsports drivers Bill Elliott, Jeremy Mayfield and Kasey Kahne. Among drivers who have started all 11 races at Indy, Elliott has the best average finish. Team owner Ray Evernham has won there three times--twice as a crew chief for Gordon (1994, 1998) and once as Elliott's owner (2002). > Ready for the latest evidence that NASCAR sponsors have branched out from the garage into everyday life? At Indy, Brian Vickers will drive a bright green No. 25 with Gamier Fructis on the hood. Gamier makes hair and skin care products. > At this point last season, Ricky Rudd had zero top 10s. This year, he has five top 10s. By the end of last season, he had three top 10s. If Rudd, currently 24th in points, surges in the second half as he did last season, he could finish in the top 20 in points for the first time since he finished 10th in 2002. > Pete Rondeau has negotiated his release from Dale Earnhardt Inc. and joined Evernham Motorsports. Rondeau started the season as Earnhardt Jr.'s crew chief but was removed from that position after 11 points races. He joined Evernham on July 18 as director of research and development. > David Stremme, slated to take over for Sterling Marlin in Ganassi Racing's No. 40 Dodge next year, has had several solid runs in the Busch Series, including last weekend at Gateway. Still, his promotion raised eyebrows because a Ganassi official acknowledged the move was about Stremme's value to sponsors and not about performance. But he should be able to perform as well as Marlin, who is 26th in points.

Look for Dale Jarrett to move up the points standings in the next few weeks. Jarrett is strong at the Brickyard and at Michigan, but his finishes at Watkins Glen haven't been great. Jarrett will keep his cool under the pressure of the race for the Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup. He won't drive himself out of a decent finish by trying too hard for a great one.

MATT CROSSMAN

mcrossman@sportingnews.com