NEWTON, Iowa -- Now that Kyle Busch has won on a road course after driving from the back to the front in Sunday's contest at Infineon Raceway, he's regained his status as NASCAR's dominant driver this season.

And he may have gotten to victory lane by doing less, rather than more.

After two straight weeks of competing in all three of NASCAR's divisions, including three races in three states in three days two weeks ago at Texas, Nashville and Pocono, Busch skipped the trip to Milwaukee for Friday night's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race and Saturday night's Nationwide Series contest.

Focusing on the Cup race instead of trying to be "Mr. Everything" allowed Busch to regain his form as the best driver in NASCAR.

"Pocono was bad, and I don't think I've ever really run that great, and I'm not making excuses, but I think I've got a fourth place finish there and the rest are in the teens or 20s," Busch said. "Last weekend we went fourth to sixth all day, bided our time and led some laps in the beginning there, got up as high as second and faded and stuff. We ran OK. We just fell behind a little bit on fuel strategy and finished 13th. It was going to be a good points day and didn't turn out as well as we wanted."

Busch stuck to what Busch does the best and that pleased his boss, Joe Gibbs Racing president J.D. Gibbs.

"From our standpoint, I still feel the same way," Gibbs said. "This weekend would have been harder. Milwaukee is hard. The other ones to me aren't really anything out of the ordinary. He's been doing it his whole life and I don't really worry. This one was a big drain and he had to go a long ways. I don't attribute it to that, but obviously if we go in the future and have more issues, we'll revisit that. I think he can run long and hard. He's still young and strong."

Busch will continue to compete in the truck series and Nationwide races this season, but he was not going to run for the championship in all three divisions once he realized that not even a driver with his talent can withstand such a schedule.

And with Busch having a clearer focus on the Sprint Cup title, that's bad news for the rest of his competitors during the "Summer Stretch" of NASCAR's season.

Entering Sunday's road course race, only six active drivers had won at Infineon or Watkins Glen International, and Busch wasn't one of them. He can now check off "a road course victory" on his list of Sprint Cup goals.

"You've got Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart, who are probably the most well-known road racers in our garage, and Robby Gordon is on that list," Busch said. "And Boris (Said), he's sort of nicknamed 'The Ringer,' he's one of those guys. It means a lot to be able to put my name now on that list, but I'm not going to say I'm a road course ace or anything.

"Today we were just in the right positions at the right time and had a great race car and I was just able to drive it around to a win. Hopefully we can do it again come Watkins Glen."

After setting the agenda for the Sprint Cup Series this season, Busch admitted that he's a "terrible loser." So that made him downright miserable the past two weekends when he was trying to compete in all three divisions. By keeping it simple, Busch was able to take work with a car that didn't start off well in practice and qualifications at Infineon and make it a winner on race day.

"I'm not happy unless I'm winning, to be honest with you," he said. "I'm a miserable person. It means a lot to be able to come out here and run well today and to be able to win. Just coming here on Thursday, I was like, `OK, let's get to the road course weekend and see how we can do and it will be all right.' And then Friday, it was like, `Whew, it was just bad.' Saturday it kind of came back to the middle and now today, we're back to thumba up.

"I'm a moody person, I guess. All of us drivers are when we are not having a good day. We are sort of upset or PO'd or however you want to put it, but when you have a good day and run well and you're winning races, it kind of sums up."

Busch is back after Sunday's victory, although he never really went anywhere. He was able to get back on track by not trying to do too much the past two weekends.

TALE OF THE TAPE

The Kyle Busch vs. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Trade

Give the nod to Busch once again this week as he won Sunday's race while Earnhardt struggled on the road course, finishing 12th.

For those keeping track, Busch has five wins this season to Earnhardt's one, and Busch leads the points standings with 2,408 -- 152 ahead of third-place Earnhardt.

FEUDING TIME

Danica Patrick may be the "Darling of the IndyCar Series," but she drew some heated criticism from this year's Indianapolis 500 winner, Scott Dixon, and fellow driver Ed Carpenter after Sunday's Iowa Corn Indy 250 at Iowa Speedway.

Patrick was the meat in a sandwich during a restart on lap 227, when Dixon went high and Marco Andretti went low to pass and leave her in their ethanol fumes.

"She's lucky that's all she got, man," Dixon said. "She's a menace."

Carpenter also voiced his displeasure with Patrick after he crashed in the second turn on the 39th lap.

"I just started working on my car, working towards the front, but Danica was doing her normal supreme block job," Carpenter said. "She is the new Scott Sharp of the series as far as I am concerned. That is two races in a row, and I am over her. I finally got around her and was nearing the lead pack. It is really disappointing."

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"I just wanted to make sure it wasn't intentional. Racing for 15th and dive-bombing someone around the outside of Turn 1 up into Turn 2 isn't really the smartest thing, in my opinion. He thought it was a great idea and I just wanted to make sure it wasn't intentional. And it sounds like it was a racing deal, so I guess we're all right."

-- Jimmie Johnson after talking to Greg Biffle following Sunday's Sonoma race, where the two were involved in an incident.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK II

"Nobody belongs in NASCAR. He's an Andretti; he knows how to drive open-wheel cars. He feels right at home here. The most experience he gets, the more of a pain he is going to be. ... Hopefully he can sign on here for the rest of the year."

-- Marco Andretti on his second-cousin, John, who is experiencing a rebirth in his return to IndyCar racing with Roth Racing after leaving this style of racing for NASCAR in 1993.