Busch busy in season’s home stretch

Kyle Busch's plate seems pretty full already.

He has three races left in NASCAR's Nextel Cup Series with Hendrick Motorsports and is making the transition to his future home at Joe Gibbs Racing.

But next weekend the Las Vegas native is scheduled to compete in four races in three days, including the Nov. 10 Fall Classic featuring Super Late Models at Las Vegas Motor Speedway's Bullring.

That weekend at Phoenix International Raceway, he will drive in Friday's truck race, Saturday's Busch race and Sunday's Cup race.

After the Busch race, he'll jet in for the Bullring event and leave right after that race to get some rest for the Cup race.

He's not expected to have much time to spend with his Las Vegas fans, but that's understandable.

• DESERT RACING -- The Championship Off Road Racing series holds its season finale Saturday and Sunday in the new Las Vegas International Off Road Raceway located behind Buffalo Bill's in Primm.

CORR is split into divisions for Pro and Sportsman categories. The premier class is Pro 4 Trucks, which are powered by 800-horsepower engines and weigh as little as 3,400 pounds. Some of the top competitors in the class are Josh Baldwin, Curt LeDuc, Carl Rendezeder and the Herbst brothers (Tim, Troy and Ed).

The feature race will be the second annual Jason Baldwin Memorial Cup, which is set for 1 p.m. Sunday.

The event is scheduled to begin at 10:20 a.m. each day, with the Pro 4 set to run at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.

Tickets are available at CORRacing.com or at the gate. ...

Las Vegan Ronn Bailey will be a teammate with Robby Gordon in next year's 3,600-mile Dakar Road Rally, which starts Jan. 5 in Lisbon and ends Jan. 20 in Dakar, Senegal.

• DRAG RACING -- Several NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series teams stayed at LVMS on Monday to test in preparation for the series finale, which began Thursday.

Melanie Troxel's emotions ran the gamut.

Over the weekend it became known that her husband, popular Funny Car driver Tommy Johnson Jr., would not be returning to Don Prudhomme's team. Prudhomme is losing sponsorship for his Top Fuel dragster driven by Larry Dixon, so Prudhomme is moving the U.S. Tobacco sponsorship from Johnson's team to Dixon's.

Then Troxel went out Monday and ran good enough to qualify to receive her NHRA Funny Car competition license. Her runs were 4.808 seconds (319.90 mph) and 4.813 (319.75).

Her husband was the first person she asked to signed her license application as a witness. She will drive a Funny Car on Mike Ashley's team next year.

Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Antron Brown tried out Top Fuel as a potential full-time replacement for Whit Bazemore at David Powers Motorsports. He made a few 100-foot runs as part of a progressional training plan. ...

The NHRA announced Wednesday that it has merged its Sport Compact Series with NOPI Motorsports, which will become the only touring series for sport compact cars. It will be called the NOPI Drag Racing Series sanctioned by the NHRA.

The NHRA version has competed at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but the status of a sports compact race at the track next year is uncertain.

Contact reporter Jeff Wolf at jwolf@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0247.