By Chris Jenkins

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) _ Kurt Busch has a new team, new cars and a new pit crew.

He also has a new look.

Busch saw a cosmetic surgeon in the off-season, and came out with his once-prominent ears pinned back closer to his head.

``Yeah, a little slicker,'' Busch said Friday, grinning. ``I've got it working in the draft now.''

Busch said he wasn't quite clear on the details of the procedure _ he was under sedation _ but he definitely is pleased with the result.

``I've wanted to do it for a few years now, but never had the time,'' he said.

The new look has turned a few heads in the garage.

``There were a lot of photographs that depicted Kurt in a different light than we had ever seen him before,'' said Geoff Smith, president of Roush Racing, Busch's former team. ``Within Roush Racing, the questions were rampant _ did he or didn't he? Was it photographer's editing?''

Busch certainly isn't the first person in NASCAR to have ``work done'' that didn't require a wrench or screwdriver.

Across the garage area, hair sprouts like roof flaps in places it didn't before. Teeth gleam shinier than the Daytona grandstands and straighter than the backstretch. Excess pounds are tossed aside like old tires.

And that's just the guys.

Driver Kyle Petty says it's only natural that a group of highly competitive, image-conscious people with an above-average amount of disposable income would turn to plastic surgery.

``It's a combination of a fair amount of marketing and a fair amount of vanity, all rolled into one,'' Petty said. ``When it was a low-profile sport, nobody cared whether you had a beer gut and no hair. Now, all of a sudden, if you don't have a full head of hair, straight teeth, a 32-inch waist, a huge chest and big broad shoulders, then you shouldn't be here.''

This week's ESPN The Magazine features a buff and bare-chested Carl Edwards on the cover. Edwards, however, is a professed workout freak and his pecs are presumed to be all-natural.

Petty, who considers himself an expert on plastic surgery because he has watched every episode of ``Dr. 90210'' on the E! channel, says he doubts sponsors are pressuring drivers to have cosmetic surgery. Busch said his new sponsor, Miller Lite, didn't pressure him to make the change.

The pressure, Petty says, comes from peers _ just as it does in the real world.

``We always talk about sports being a microcosm of what society is, and it's happening in everyday life, no matter what job these people have,'' Petty said. ``So obviously, this is more of a public sport and a public spectacle.''

For the record, Petty says his trademark pony tail is the real thing. ``It's not connected to the hat,'' Petty said, tugging on his mane.

Petty's only question: When would somebody in NASCAR have time to recover from such a procedure?

``I'm not sure when they would have plastic surgery, because you've only really got about 45 days to heal in this business, so it's pretty tough,'' Petty said. ``So it would have to be double-throw-down, top-secret, somebody disappeared like they went into rehab for a few months.''

So if you saw Busch in the off-season, and he was wearing a toboggan-style winter hat, now you know why.