DENVER -- Kurt Busch is ready for yet another new ride. Furniture Row Racing hired Busch on Monday to drive for the Colorado-based team in 2013. Busch will replace Regan Smith in the No. 78 Chevrolet. Busch was the 2004 NASCAR champion, but he split with Penske Racing at the end of last season because of his many off-track incidents. He spent this season driving for Phoenix Racing in the Sprint Cup series and his brothers Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Nationwide Series, where he won twice. The 34-year-old Busch has said his goal this season was to prove he deserved a chance with another top-tier team. With so few seats available, Furniture Row became the best option. Busch will drive for his third team in three years when he takes the wheel for Furniture Row. "Though we have made strides as a resourceful single-car Sprint Cup team, we are not where we want to be, which led us to the difficult decision of making a driver change as we move forward," said Furniture Row Racings general manager Joe Garone. "Kurts exceptional driving talent has the capacity to take a team to another level. We look forward to having Kurt join our Denver-based organization and feel his racing experience will play an important role as we plan ahead to 2013." Busch has won 24 Sprint Cup races, as well as the 2010 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race. "Furniture Row Racing has the commitment, talent and resources to compete at a high level in the Sprint Cup Series," Busch said. "I have watched with admiration on how this team has grown over the years and that is why I am excited about the opportunity as I eagerly look forward to a new chapter in my racing career." Busch is 25th in the points standings and has only one top-five finish in the Cup series this season. He served a one-week NASCAR suspension in June after for verbally abusing a media member. Busch was already on probation from an incident at Darlington in May -- he was also fined $50,000 for reckless driving on pit road -- and NASCAR decided his treatment to the reporter was in violation of his probation. Busch said he just wanted to have some fun driving the No. 51 for Phoenix while he rebuilt his image in the hope he could return to a top-tier organization next season. Busch parted ways with Penske Racing in the offeseason after six bumpy seasons. Busch was fired in the fallout of yet another embarrassing incident. A fan caught Busch on video verbally abusing an ESPN reporter during last months season finale, and Busch was fined $50,000 by NASCAR after the clip was posted on YouTube. Smith, who is 23rd in the points standings, has no top-fives and only two top-10 finishes this season. He has Furniture Rows only Cup race victory, winning in 2011 at Darlington Raceway. "As our team driver the past four years, Regan has represented Furniture Row Racing with both class and competitiveness," Garone said. "He is a friend, and will always be a friend of Furniture Row Racing. We wish him all the best." Just not with Furniture Row. The 34-year-old Busch qualified for the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship six times in the last nine years and won his lone Cup championship in only his third full season in the series. J... Altidore USA Jersey . Against Utah, with four or five players taking turns guarding Bryant, nothing came easy as the Jazz pulled off a 95-86 victory to drop the Lakers to 1-4. "Its tough for anyone to stop him one-on-one," Jazz guard Randy Foye said. ... Yedlin USA Jersey . Melky Cabrera singled four times to extend his hitting streak to 11 games, Gregor Blanco drove in three runs with a pair of hits and San Francisco beat Arizona 7-3 on Sunday. h... . 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BRISBANE, Australia -- Starting the 2013 schedule a couple of days before the New Year put Serena Williams under a little more pressure than usual to produce a convincing victory in her first match of the season. After saving five break points as she adjusted to a strong cross breeze in the first game, the 15-time major winner needed less than an hour to beat No. 21-ranked Varvara Lepchenko 6-2, 6-1 in the first round of the Brisbane International on Sunday. Williams won 31 of her last 32 matches in the second half of the 2012 season, including titles at Wimbledon, the Olympics, U.S. Open and the WTA Championships. She won 58 of 62 matches in total this year, a win-loss record she didnt want to diminish in any way. "Tomorrow is the last day of the year, so technically I still had my 2012 rep on the line," she said. "I really needed to win today so I could finish the year with still just the four losses. So that was important for me." Williams didnt show any signs of being hampered by the minor surgery on her big toes which forced her to withdraw from a Dec. 29 exhibition in Thailand, moving freely throughout the match against the Uzbekistan-born Lepchenko, who now represents the United States. "I was a little nervous, but I was completely fine," the No. 3-ranked Williams said. "The doctor said I would be fine. I was excited to get an early start so just in case I did have any pain I could have tomorrow off. But everything was fine." Williams said she didnt believe in New Years resolutions. That doesnt stop her aiming for a sweep of the majors. She held all four Grand Slam titles at one stage, winning the 2003 Australian Open after claiming the French, Wimbledon and U.S. Open titles in 2002, but shes never completed a season slam.dddddddddddd "I think for me, absolutely," she replied to questions if the Slam was possible for her for 2013. "I think maybe whoever wins will Australian Open will have that same thought. I think there is no way that Victoria (Azarenka) or Maria (Sharapova) or maybe some other players dont feel the same way. So I think I definitely feel that way." And if that doesnt work, shes planning on giving herself a few more years to attempt it, saying her experience at the London Olympics gave her the desire to keep playing until the 2016 Games in Rio. Eight of the top 10 women are contesting the Brisbane International, with Azarenka and Sharapova getting byes in the first round. Sixth-seeded Petra Kvitova had a 6-3, 6-4 win over Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain and will next meet Russias Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who beat Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. Kvitova, who won the 2011 Brisbane International before claiming her first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon, was unable to convert her first match point at 5-2 in the second set, then dropped a service game before Suarez Navarros late comeback ended with an error on the second match point. In other matches, Australian wildcard entry Jarmila Gajdosova had a 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 win over 16th-ranked Roberta Vinci of Italy to set up a second-round match against No. 2-seeded Sharapova. Urszula Radwanska of Poland beat Tamira Paszek of Austria 2-6, 6-0, 6-2 and Slovakias Daniela Hantuchova had a 7-5, 6-2 win over Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Spain. Australias Samantha Stosur was headlining the night session Monday, hoping to give the home crowd something to celebrate on Monday night. ' ' '