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Kyle Busch found out Friday that if you're too young to smoke cigarettes, you're also too young to drive in a cigarette-sponsored race weekend.
Busch, 16, has driven in six NASCAR Craftsman Truck races this season and was the fastest driver in morning practice at California Speedway before Max Jones, team manager for Jack Roush's Fords, was notified that his driver could not participate in today's Auto Club 200 truck race.
"We didn't know anything about it until five minutes before Kyle was to qualify," Jones said. "The car was going through the line on the grid."
Busch's practice lap of 175.387 mph was more than a mile an hour faster than Scott Riggs' pole-sitting 173.678 speed in a Dodge.
"It's just an unfortunate thing--it was out of my control--but we're going for next year," said Busch, youngest in a Las Vegas racing family. His brother, Kurt, is running Winston Cup this year for Roush.
"We planned on running seven races this year, but it looks like we'll only be running in six.
"We were on top of the sheets in practice and we were looking forward to qualifying, and right before we went out, we got turned down. So, we're going to Daytona right now, and looking towards next season."
The ruling was not made by NASCAR, but by the speedway and Marlboro, title sponsor of the weekend activities.
"This is an issue relating to our agreement with our sponsor," said Bill Miller, speedway president. "The age of an entrant for Saturday's race was an...
