CHINA GROVE, NC (June 8,2009) - If one sees Ken Butler III smiling even before the first practice at Kentucky Speedway for this weekend's NASCAR Nationwide Series race it's for a real good reason - he's been there before.

For the first time in weeks, KB3 will take the No. 23 Aaron's Dream Machine Chevrolet of R3 Motorsports onto a track where he's raced before. And, in looking at his ARCA stats at Kentucky, it looks like he has good reason to be ready to race there with an outside pole and top-five finish to his credit.

In the 2008 race, KB3 went from 20th to fourth in earning his top-five finish. For the 2007 race, he laid down the second-fastest lap in qualifying to earn his outside pole position. This weekend, he's looking to combine all those prior laps and successes into a great run for the Aaron's Dream Machine Chevrolet.

How does it feel to be going to a track you are familiar with: "I can't even begin to tell you what a relief it is to be racing someplace I've seen before. The past few races (Richmond, Dover, Phoenix) have been a great learning experience and I realize it's all part of the learning curve, but I can see the value in returning to some familiar tracks, too."

What is about Kentucky that you like: "I love the intermediate tracks (1.5 miles) like Kentucky. For some reason, I've adapted to them real well in both ARCA and Nationwide cars. The size gives you some time on the straights to set yourself up for the turns. It's not that much time, but at tracks like Dover and Richmond everything seems to happen just a bit faster. Kentucky fans are really into it when we come there and I love racing on a Saturday night.

"There's something about the excitement level and energy you get from the crowd that transfers to me as a driver when we race on a Saturday night under the lights. So, the more noise they make the more pumped I get to race for the fans of Kentucky.

"My co-driver, Robert Richardson, Jr., had a good run last week in Nashville (21st place) and that moved us in to a locked position in the Owner's Points by virtue of attempts. So, we can go to Kentucky and work on our race set-ups more to get another good finish like Robert had last week."

How have the first three weeks of fatherhood been: "Want to see some pictures?"

Tune in for the win: You can catch all the NASCAR Nationwide Series action ESPN2 this weekend beginning with Friday night's practice session at 6 p.m. (ET). On Saturday, qualifying will air at 5 p.m. with race action soon after 6:30 p.m.