Martinsville, Va. ? Everything looked rosy for Kurt Busch when the season began.

Starting his third Winston Cup season, Busch was one of the favorites to win the series championship, mostly based on a big finish in 2002 that included three wins in the last five races.

That streak began with a victory at Martinsville Speedway, the track where Busch will try to turn around a late-season slump at Sunday’s Subway 500.

“I’d say 2002 was a complete success and this year we tried to build off of that,” the driver of the No. 97 Roush Racing Ford said. “We were able to start out in that fashion, but you could say there are a lot of things that are out of your control that I had to adjust to.”

Things did start well this season, with a victory and three second-place finishes in the first six races. Busch was third in the points after the first 11 races and appeared ready to contend for the title, as expected.

Instead, his season took some unexpected turns.

Busch has failed to finish six of the first 31 races in 2003 after having only four such failures all of last season.

“We haven’t had as much luck as we had last year,” Busch said. “Things that are out of our control are adding up to where we are in points right now, so you can say it’s been a learning year.”

His education also includes some hard-earned knowledge about being responsible for his actions.

Busch’s long-simmering feud with Jimmy Spencer blew up in August at Michigan when Spencer punched Busch in the face after late-race, on-track bumping. It later came out that Busch was heard on a radio transmission saying he was trying to intentionally flatten Spencer’s fender.

In the aftermath, Busch has been booed by fans and roundly criticized by other drivers for being too brazen and brash for a 25-year-old with so much yet to prove.

Jimmy Fennig, his crew chief, thinks Busch has handled that well.

“There is no change at all in Kurt,” Fennig said. “His drive to win is there.

“The fans, he kind of blocks that out. As soon as that car starts up, he doesn’t really pay attention to Jimmy Spencer or what happened. He’s focused on winning that race at that time.”

Despite the problems, Busch was still sixth in the points after winning at Bristol Aug. 23 — his fourth win of the year. He was still a long way behind Roush teammate Matt Kenseth, the series leader, but Busch stayed determined to move up the standings.

It hasn’t worked out that way.

Since that last win, Busch’s only top-10 finish in seven races has been a sixth last month at Talladega. Busch’s last two races have been disastrous, with an engine failure and subsequent fire relegating him to 40th at Kansas and a crash leaving him 41st last week at Charlotte.

All that has also left Busch tenuously holding onto 10th in the points with five races remaining.

“I don’t think the team needs improvement,” he said. “I believe what has happened over the past few months is that the Chevys have been able to polish up on what they can build for downforce.

“Last year, you saw seven Fords in the top 10 in points and this year you’re only gonna see two Fords (Kenseth and Busch) in the top 10 in points at the end of the year. So, it’s been a big swing in the manufacturers as far as which way the rules have gone.”

The goal now for Busch and his team is to remain in the top 10 in the points and finish strong to carry some momentum into next season.

“We’ve had a rough couple of weeks so, now, we’re sitting down and getting back to the roots of our success and trying to be able to be consistent,” Busch said.