The car owners are lining up to talk with Kyle Busch, and the overwhelming interest likely alleviated any hurt feelings he might have had following his ouster from Hendrick Motorsports.

Busch was pushed out of Hendrick's elite organization when the team hired Dale Earnhardt Jr. to replace him starting next season. It put Busch on the open market, and there's a flood of interest in this talented driver.

"I'm just kind of flattered and exited by all the interest and phone calls that we've gotten," Busch, 22, said yesterday at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich.

"I'm interested in talking to anybody who wants to talk ... whoever has an open seat, let's go. Let's sit down. Let's have dinner."

Dale Earnhardt Inc., Evernham Motorsports, Ginn Racing and Robert Yates Racing have expressed interest in Busch, making him the hottest free agent in NASCAR now that Earnhardt is off the market.

It has helped take the sting off his split from Hendrick, which was finalized earlier this week when Hendrick agreed to a five-year deal with Junior.

Busch's contract with Hendrick ran through 2008. Hendrick said once other teams learned Busch was negotiating an extension, interest piqued in the driver and complicated talks.

More NASCAR

J.J. Yeley won his first career pole yesterday at Michigan International Speedway, making him like the two-mile oval even more.

Yeley posted a lap of 38.399 seconds -- at a speed of 187.505 mph -- to edge Jimmie Johnson by a thousandth of a second.

Busch was third at 186.829. Ryan Newman, Joe Nemechek and Jeff Gordon rounded out the top six qualifiers.

Formula One

Rookie Lewis Hamilton, 22, is a fast learner. He has done well everywhere the globe-hopping F1 series has gone this season. In his first six race weekends, Hamilton, the first black driver in F1, has made few mistakes.

He did crash on the opening day of practice a month ago at Monaco, a track where he won in the developmental GP2 series. But he came back to finish second in the F1 race to Mercedes McLaren teammate and reigning F1 champion Fernando Alonso.

Hamilton goes into the U.S. Grand Prix at Indianapolis tomorrow as the series leader, holding an eight-point margin over Alonso after getting his first F1 win a week ago in Montreal -- his sixth consecutive top-three finish.

He and Alonso were fast again yesterday, with the veteran getting the edge this time in both practice sessions. Two-time F1 champion Alonso had the fastest lap of the day's second open practice at 1 minute, 12.156 seconds after leading the way in the morning at 1:11.925.

Hamilton, also coming off his first pole in Montreal, was right behind Alonso in the afternoon at 1:12.309 after being third in the morning, behind his teammate and BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld, who finished second in Montreal.