If he lives up to the hype that has preceded him, Saturday could mark the start of a very successful career as Kyle Busch makes his Busch Series debut in the Carquest Auto Parts 300 at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Yes, Kurt's younger brother -- Kyle just turned 18 years old -- is being touted as the next Jeff Gordon -- only better. He's been so successful in just five years of racing that, to many of his supporters, the jump to Winston Cup and championships is just down the road.

	Kyle Busch smiles after winning the ARCA race at Kentucky Speedway on May 10.

"I don't know that I've seen anybody with more talent, including Jeff Gordon at this stage of his life," said team owner Rick Hendrick, who gobbled up the younger Busch as soon as he made his intentions known about coming to the Busch Series. "Kyle has got a tremendous amount of talent and poise."

Obviously, Hendrick is one of the most astute judges of talent. He's engineered Gordon's drive to four Winston Cup titles, oversaw Jimmie Johnson's spectacular rookie season last year and sees a tremendous amount of potential in Busch.

"I've been so impressed with the way Kyle's handled himself so far," Hendrick said. "I could swear he's 26 and not 18. He's calm and cool inside the car, no matter what's going on around him. We're extremely pleased to have him involved and I think there's a lot of good things lie ahead for Kyle."

For his part, Busch is taking everything, particularly the lofty comparisons, in stride. However, it's hard not to anticipate big things from this savvy teen who acts like a seasoned veteran.

"I'm just going to go out and do my deal on the race track, and do whatever I can," Busch said. "If I come out on top, or whatever I do, I do it to the best of my ability and hopefully it shows good results. Being compared to guys like Jeff Gordon or Jimmie Johnson or guys like that, it's real neat, but I've just got to go out and prove myself and be the best I can every week."

Despite the publicity surrounding his debut, the younger of the two Busch brothers isn't apprehensive. If confidence was a commodity, Busch has the market cornered.

"I'm not really either nervous or scared," Busch said. "I've got a great crew chief and have been given a great car. Hopefully we'll be able to go out there and qualify up front and run up front."

Some observers compare the scene to Tiger Woods' debut on the PGA Tour.

"It's pretty good to be compared to guys like that," Busch said. "All in all, it's great to have that and be recognized as one of the premier up and coming talents. But nevertheless, it's just one of those deals where I have to go out every weekend, play it as another race and just do the best I can behind the wheel and everything else will pave its own way."

Since joining Hendrick earlier this season, Busch has been part of a development program that will see him do extensive testing this year, as well as run seven races -- five Busch events, including his debut Saturday, as well as two ARCA races. He's already completed the ARCA events, winning both races convincingly. Last month he won from the pole at Nashville and two weeks ago he was victorious at Kentucky.

"I'm really excited to get everything going," Busch said. "It's been a hard struggle to get up here, but nonetheless, it's been a great time as well with everything that's been going on. This weekend's going to be a lot of fun. We're just going to go out there to try and gain experience and run the best we can. If we're struggling 14th or 15th, that's fine, we just go on to the next time and learn from what we did. But, also if we're able to run up front, we'd be happy to just be able to do that with all the Winston Cup guys that are going to be there."

As he began the build-up toward jumping to the Busch Series, Busch competed in 20 ASA races last year. While he didn't win, he had four top-fives and 10 top-10s, completing 5,237 of 5,500 total laps. He also competed in six events on NASCAR's Truck Series -- at the age of just 16 -- in 2001, managing an impressive two top-10 finishes. However, Busch's development was detoured last season when NASCAR ruled that drivers must now be 18 to compete.

But he's all over that and ready to go racing in the No. 87 Chevy.

"This year's just a learning year," Busch said. "We're just going to go out and do what we can. We weren't even supposed to be winning races this year, and we already did that on the ARCA series, so we're pretty happy to have been able to do that. Next year's the year -- we're waiting for that year. This year we're just holding out and going for our seven so we can go for (Busch) Rookie of the Year next year."

One of Busch's biggest supporters is a guy he's had numerous battles with on a track -- older brother Kurt.

"If you think I'm good, you haven't seen my brother yet," Kurt Busch said last year at Homestead, Fla., when asked about Kyle's eventual elevation to the Busch Series. "He's even better than me."

Kyle underscores compliments like that.

"I don't know what makes me so good, and even if I did know, I couldn't tell you," the younger Busch said. "Pretty much it's just being able to get all the experience all these years, running stuff for my dad and running with and learning from my brother, as well. Everything I've been doing, I've just been trying to learn. I don't try to drive the same way twice. I try to learn something different, and if that works, then I try something different again. You can always go faster; there's always a way.

"I think comparisons are great, whether you're thought of as the next Kurt Busch or Jeff Gordon or whatever. It's pretty neat to have that slate by your name. It's neat to here other people think of you as other drivers and that you can be as good or better than those. As long as it's not bad, I don't care."

Busch will team with fellow teen Brian Vickers -- their combined age is 37, less than that of numerous Winston Cup veterans -- on the same Busch team owned by Hendrick and operated by son Ricky, who at 23 was forced to give up a racing career last season due to injuries.

While only a year older in age than Busch, Vickers has much more experience. He competed in four races in 2001 and in 21 of last season's 33 races, finishing 30th in the standings and with a top finish of seventh at Richmond, Va.

As for this season, Vickers' goals have stepped up a few notches: he wants to lead as many laps as possible, as well as to gain his first Busch victory.

"We've come so close to winning a race several times already this year, but it's tough," Vickers said. "If we can run as many laps as we can and win a race or two, then the points in the championship race will come. It's definitely possible to win the championship this year, and we're not going to count it out, but we're also not going to concern ourselves with it that much right now. It's still real early in the season and there's a lot of races left to go. So, we're just going to try and stick to our game plan, run as many laps as we can and try to go after some wins."

Vickers has five top-10s in 2003, including a career-best second-place showing last weekend at Nazareth, Pa., and a fourth-place finish the week before at Madison, Ill.

"We got off to a rough start, but we've come a long way," Vickers said. "We've led, I think, more laps than any other Busch team besides Kevin Harvick and Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. In a way, it's surprising that we've done so well so fast, but at the same time it's not surprising because of my crew chief and all the good guys I have on the team, plus Rick and Ricky Hendrick. It's been exciting thus far, that's for sure. We've had two top-fives in the last two weeks, and that's what we need. And if we can continue to do that and stay consistent, the wins will come."

In much the same case as Kyle Busch's development, Vickers sees his eventual progression to Winston Cup starting with a lengthy apprenticeship in the Busch Series. But if things go well, it would not be a surprise to see Vickers on the Cup circuit by 2005.

"Right now, I'm enjoying what I'm doing, I love racing so much," Vickers said. "Sure, going to Cup is one of my goals in life, to become a successful Winston Cup driver. But right now, I'm focused in on what I have to do here in the Busch Series. I'm putting 110 percent of my time and effort into it and to do what I have to do to be successful and make the guys back at the shop proud.

"As far as Cup is concerned, Mr. Hendrick and Ricky have a lot of experience taking Busch Series drivers to Cup, knowing when to do it and how to do it, as they've showed with Jimmie (Johnson) and Jeff (Gordon). Really, it's up to them. I'm not in any rush. I'm only 19, I'm not concerned with it. I know they'll make the right decision and I trust in their judgment that much. So whenever they feel the time is right, I'll go."

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com.