The hour was early, but looking back I feel confident in saying that his choice in accessories had nothing to do with his taste for the nightlife. By his own admission, outside of racing he hasn't much of a life. If anything, the shades made it clear that the most gifted young driver in racing was still perilously close to adolescence.

Here he was, about to embark on his fifth NASCAR season, and still months shy of his 23rd birthday. I found myself wondering how often he had to shave, if ever. Then again, whiskers were never a prerequisite for outsized ambition.

"One cup win a year?" Busch asked, referring to the highlight of his 2007 season, a victory at Bristol Motor Speedway. "That's not acceptable. That's not sufficient — especially with what everybody has told me about my talent."

What everybody has told me about my talent. For Busch — most often described as "brash" — this was a way of not bragging. No one needs remind him. He understands the immensity of aptitudes better than anyone.

And so you wondered: In Kyle Busch's estimation, how many wins would constitute a satisfactory season?

"At least four," he said. "That would be more acceptable to my standards."

But now, with the NASCAR caravan back in Daytona to mark the season's midpoint, Busch already has five. He has five additional top-five finishes and five more in the top 10. Of the 5,099 laps he has raced in 2008, he has led an astounding 869, more than anyone in the sport. With 64 points separating him from Jeff Burton, and 164 from the third-place driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., it's now his Cup to lose.

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It's especially difficult to quantify talent in a sport like auto racing. One is ever asking two questions: Is it the car? Or the driver?

In this case, it's the driver. That much is clear. Busch wins on Friday nights, Saturday afternoons and Sunday at twilight. "I'm used to racing all day, every day, all the time," he said that morning in Daytona. "It's just who I am. I want to be on a racetrack. It's cool to win any race. I don't care what it is, I just want to take home a trophy. That's all I care about."

This season has seen him win two truck races and another four in the Nationwide Series. His Cup wins came at Atlanta, the fastest non-restrictor plate track on the circuit; at Talladega, NASCAR's biggest oval; at Darlington, the original superspeedway; at Dover, on a concrete oval; and at Sonoma, a road course.

These victories have done more than demonstrate the range of his driving skills; they've ruined the much-anticipated script for the 2008 season. Busch's five wins are three more than his former team, Hendrick Motorsports, can account for in what was supposed to be its best season ever.

Thirteen months ago — in a 45-minute, nationally televised press conference — Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced that he would be joining Hendrick. The addition of the planet's most popular racer created a stock car Dream Team, a roster that also included Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, with six Cup championships between them. The Yankees of NASCAR, they were called.

But for all the praise heaped on the Hendrick camp, the boss himself could have done better — a lot better as it turns out. Rick Hendrick, no different than the men who run teams in every other sport, is to be judged first on his ability to procure talent. In retrospect, getting Earnhardt was a no-brainer, as NASCAR's most famous son is a great talent who does great business. But Hendrick didn't have to cost himself and his team a younger and even better driver in the process. If he really wanted a Dream Team, he should've kept Kyle Busch. Instead, he gave Busch's No. 5 car to Casey Mears.

As it regarded Busch, Hendrick told reporters, "A fresh start might be good for both of us. ... We decided it would be good for him to pursue those and for me to be able to pursue this opportunity with Junior."

But why should those opportunities have been mutually exclusive? It's worth mentioning that Busch did nothing for his reputation as a teammate when he left the track after wrecking in Texas last year. It's also worth mentioning that Mears is great pals with his fellow Californians Johnson and Gordon.

But a year later, Busch — who found a home with Toyota and an even more conservative owner in Joe Gibbs — is NASCAR's points leader, while Hendrick has announced that Mears (with a single win since his 2003 debut) won't be back next year. Mears' expected replacement in the No. 5 car, Mark Martin, will be 50 in January. Whatever benefits Martin brings to his new team, a future is not among them.

What might have been? Yankee fans are forced to consider the question every few years. Actually, considering how many seasons the team has led the majors in payroll without winning a World Series, there may yet be unforeseen merit to the Hendrick-Yankee analogy.

Meanwhile, the future belongs to Kyle Busch. He's nicknamed Rowdy after a character in the movie "Days of Thunder." But I thought of him that morning in Daytona as a character from another Tom Cruise movie. That would be Vincent, the apprentice pool hustler from "The Color of Money."

"I have natural character," he says.

"No," says Fast Eddie (as played by Paul Newman). "You are a natural character. You're an incredible flake. ... It's a gift."

Busch, like Vincent, is famously gifted. With this season as evidence, one figures he's acquiring the Zen to fulfill his ambitions.

It's cool to win any race. That's all I care about.

What do you expect from a kid wearing sunglasses to breakfast?