Burney Is the Hot Name on Busch Circuit

As the NASCAR Busch Series race at Daytona International Speedway reached its climax two weeks ago, defending Nextel Cup champion Tony Stewart -- who also drives in the second-tier Busch Series -- was leading the pack. Right on his tail was Burney Lamar.

Burney who?

Burney Lamar, whose first name rhymes with that of Hall of Fame driver Dan Gurney and, in that race at least, was charging to the front just as Gurney did so often in the 1960s.

Stewart won the race and Lamar -- driving a Busch Series car for the first time on the high-banked, 2.5-mile oval at Daytona -- finished second, after starting 21st.

Lamar, 24, didn’t fare as well last week, finishing 21st in the Stater Bros. 300 Busch race at the California Speedway in Fontana.

But the West Sacramento native, who cut his teeth largely on California tracks, still is a potential Busch rookie of the year, amid speculation that he could one day join Stewart in NASCAR’s big leagues.

Already, it’s a dream come true for Lamar, who got his start at 5, when his father, Izzie, gave him a go-kart.

“Just to be in Daytona alone was exciting for me, let alone finish the way we did,” Lamar said as he prepared to leave for Mexico City, site of the next Busch race Sunday.

Lamar, whose boyish face features a wide smile, also said he wasn’t intimidated by Daytona. His No. 77 Chevrolet was tough to handle at first, but after crew chief Gene Nead made adjustments, “we just started going forward,” Lamar said.

All the way forward to the bumper of Stewart, who also is Lamar’s teammate.

“For a kid like him to put himself even in that position was pretty remarkable,” Stewart said. “He had a good shot at winning that race.”

Lamar is the protege of Cup driver Kevin Harvick of Bakersfield, who owns a Busch Series team with his wife DeLana. Harvick himself finished behind Lamar, fifth, in the Daytona Busch race.

Harvick groomed Lamar last year by having him drive several different NASCAR series, including one Busch race, three Craftsman truck races and four West series races, along with an Automobile Club of America (ARCA) race.

Last September, Lamar won the NASCAR Grand National West race at the two-mile California Speedway. Earlier in the season, he won in Phoenix.

Lamar’s goals include winning a race this year and, ultimately, graduating to the Nextel Cup series.

“I would love to make it there one day,” he said, “and I think we have a good shot at it.”

Last Laps

* Indy Racing League driver Bryan Herta of Valencia will drive for Team USA in the A1 Grand Prix of Nations’ lone U.S. stop, March 12 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

The 11-race series, which pits open-wheel racing teams from different countries, began in September and ends April 2 with a race in Shanghai, China.

* Sebastien Bourdais, the reigning Champ Car World Series champion, will join co-drivers David Brabham and Scott Maxwell in the Mobil 12 Hours of Sebring endurance race March 18.

Bourdais drives for Newman-Haas Racing, and his teammate Bruno Junqueira also will compete in the Sebring race -- his first since being injured at last year’s Indianapolis 500.

* Actor Patrick Dempsey, a co-owner of the IRL team Vision Racing, acknowledged this week that Vision does not yet have primary sponsors for its two cars because “it’s tough for everybody right now getting sponsorship with what’s happening.”

What’s happening is that U.S. open-wheel racing remains divided, with the IRL and Champ Car running separate series that compete for sponsors’ dollars.

Dempsey stars on the TV show “Grey’s Anatomy,” and his team’s IRL drivers are Tomas Scheckter and Ed Carpenter, the stepson of Tony George, who founded the IRL and owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

* A group of U.S. motorcycling veterans hopes to set a land-speed record for a motorcycle with an attempt Monday in Australia. The current record is 322.149 mph set in 1991, according to the group, which is led by designer Mike Akatiff and includes rider Sam Wheeler.

The team’s vehicle -- a 900-horsepower motorcycle encased in a streamlined shell -- set an unofficial record of 328.3 mph in October 2004, at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.