OXFORD – Amid the whiff of oil, fuel, burnt rubber and the sinful, yet enticing odors from the Fat Guys concession stand nearby, Kurt Busch’s car probably still had its new-car smell.

Bright and shiny, looking as if it just rolled off the showroom floor, the new car was getting its first taste of action Saturday.

“The paint is burning off it because it’s the first time its been getting work,” said Busch.

The 25-year-old from North Carolina was at Oxford Plains Speedway on Saturday to break in his new ride for Sunday’s Banknorth 250. His white car with purple trim and the Crown Royal logo sparkled in the morning sun and purred with authority when the Nextel Cup driver took it out for practice laps.

“This is a brand-new car,” said Busch. “Crown Royal helped us put the deal together and helped us build it. It’ll be flashy enough for everyone to keep track of. Hopefully we can put on a good show.”

Busch is one of two Nextel Cup drivers racing in this year’s 250, drawing even more attention to Maine’s premier auto race. Matt Kenseth, the defending Cup champion, arrives Sunday for his test runs in the morning.

Kenseth ranks fifth in the Nextel standings. Busch is ninth.

Busch visited OPS in June to test out the track, but that was in a car borrowed from Tim Brackett. His new ride is the sister car to Brackett’s Dunkin’ Donut’s car.

“We’re getting acclimated to the track,” Busch said. “That’s the primary focus for me, and, at the same time, we’re working the bugs out of the car. We had a slight-rear end leak, and we put a long breather line on it and fixed that problem. One little nut was loose here, and we tightened that up. Now, we’re making adjustments. So we’re making some good headway.”

Saturday’s test run was a little different than his solo laps back in June. He had traffic on the speedway as other drivers sized up their machines for Sunday’s race.

“Here in June, it seemed easier to run the fast lap times because it was cooler,” said Busch. “And now there’s so many cars that have been out on the race track that it’s beginning to get slick.”

Considering he’s accustomed to 1- and 2-mile tracks on the NASCAR circuit, the 3/8-mile oval at Oxford provides a bit of a challenge and an adjustment. You have to learn the quirks, Busch said, and every trip around helps. Having some good advice doesn’t hurt either.

“Tim Brackett is more or less my teammate, and when Kenseth gets here, I’ll talk to him about it,” said Busch. “It’s a matter of asking the locals what they’re going to do to set their cars up and what they’re going to do to get around the race track. Just do the small 1-on-1 research.”

He already has talked with Nextel Cup driver and Maine native Ricky Craven, who raced in the event seven times and won in 1991.

“He’s been here many times so it was certainly good to talk to him and get his experiences,” said Busch. “He said that you’ve got to race the track a certain way and when I was up here testing, I was actually doing it the wrong way. He helped me out a little bit, and I picked up a couple things.”

Busch said he’s just the new guy on the block and will look at how the veterans are racing. Considering that Busch and Kenseth, his Roush teammate, bring Nextel Cup starpower to the event, they won’t exactly be anonymous.

But it will provide him some advantages. He has two people from his Cup team and Brackett’s crew. He’s also brought his crew from the Crown Royal IROC series to help change tires during pit stops.

“We’ve brought a first-class effort to the program,” said Busch. “Crown Royal gave us the opportunity to buy tires and make sure we’ve got all the right crew members in place. We didn’t necessarily come to give it a (minor-league) job. We’re very professional about what we’re going to do.”

Like everyone else, Busch will have to qualify in the heats Sunday afternoon. You can sense a glint of excitement when he talks about the practice laps being nothing like when the real racing begins in Sunday’s qualifying heats.

“That’s what the fun is,” he said. “You’ve got a practice day like today, and then you put everything on the line tomorrow.”

Being involved in this kind of event this makes for a nice change of pace and a new challenge, Busch said. He’ll compete at the Siemens 300 at the New Hampshire International Speedway next weekend, but for now, he is enjoying life on the other side.

“I think it’s something most drivers should do when they race professionally,” Busch said. “Go back to their roots and race once or twice a year. Branch out and have some fun and get back into the days like how it used to be.”