DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - After fighting a bad case of the "new
car blues" for the majority of tonight's Coke Zero 400 here at Daytona
International Speedway, it was another unbelievable but typical "scratching
and clawing" Kurt Busch performance that produced a fourth-place finish for
the Miller Lite Dodge Team.
"It's a great finish for our Miller Lite Dodge," said a smiling yet relieved
Busch, after he crawled out of his car and stood on pit road with the other
top-five finishers. "It was a hard fought day. We came into the pits and
changed a right-front shock, which you don't normally do. We changed the
left side track bar and that takes wrenches out of your tool box. You
normally don't do that. We just fought all race long with making changes
trying to make our car better.
"It was about the same setup that we had here in February and (the setup)
showed up right there at the end tonight," Busch explained. "I just needed
to calm down and play it cool a little bit, whether it's a 500 or 400 mile
race here. Our Miller Lite Dodge really was running at the end when
everybody was bumping and grinding. Our car pushed well and got pushed well.
It was a good day for us.
"It's like that every time here," Busch said of the wild action down to the
checkered flag. "The more I'm right in the middle of the lead pack, the more
comfortable I am in the car. I feel like I learn something each time I'm in
that position, especially how to survive it and get a good finish out of it.
To finish with two top fives in a row is a good twist of fate for our team
and we'll try to build on it."
After crashing his primary car in practice here on Thursday, Busch and his
Pat Tryson-led Penske Racing No. 2 team were forced to roll out there backup
car and qualify on Friday without any practice. With it being an "impound"
event, his two laps under the clock here on Friday also served as the total
number of laps on the car when the green flag fell here tonight.
After starting 36th, Busch reported that his car was "darting all over the
place" after only five laps had been completed. The situation gradually grew
worse as an extreme tight condition set it.
The team went to work trying to get the car handling better. Under the first
caution period, spring rubbers were taken out of the right rear. Busch had
made it up to 18th by Lap 28, but he was still fighting an incredibly
ill-handling car.
The crew made virtually every change imaginable during the first
three-quarters of the race, taking such drastic measures as going up an
unheard-of 16 rounds on the track bar on Lap 72 during the third caution
period of the race. With the front end of Busch's car feeling as if it was,
"like running on skis out here," at Lap 79, the team did the unthinkable by
changing the right-front shock absorber on Lap 111 under the fourth caution
period of the night.
After going from the 36th spot on the Lap 114 restart, Busch began
demonstrating his restrictor-plate racing prowess down the stretch. With a
potentially serious situation involving the right-front tires, Busch pitted
for the final time under the fifth yellow of the race on Lap 125. He was
23rd on the restart with 32 laps to go.
Two different altercations saw him receive contact significant enough to
warrant extra precaution and extensive visual checks to make sure there were
no tire rubs.
When Denny Hamlin bounced off the outside wall in Turn 4 and shot across the
track into Ryan Newman, sending him spinning into the inside wall, the
seventh caution flag of the night flew. Several cars including those of
Jimmie Johnson, Travis Kvapil, Bobby Labonte and Hamlin hit pit road. Busch
and crew continued to opt for track position and stayed out on the track.
Busch was 19th on the Lap 139 restart. Only one lap later, he miraculously
managed to escape getting caught up in a crash triggered when Casey Mears
was hit from the rear and knocked into the outside wall. Mears shot back
across the track collecting Jeff Burton in his path. Busch came within
inches of getting taken out by Burton when he hit the outside wall and spun
back into the oncoming traffic.
After Joe Nemechek and Boris Said crashed in Turn 4 to bring out the ninth
caution, again several cars hit pit road, including Kasey Kahne, who had a
serious tire rub.
Jeff Gordon led on the Lap 152 restart, with Kyle Busch, who had fallen
earlier to 36th in the running order and displayed the strength of his Joe
Gibbs Racing Toyota by marching back up through the field, running second.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. was third, Matt Kenseth fourth, Kevin Harvick fifth,
David Ragan sixth, Mark Martin seventh, Carl Edwards eighth, Clint Bowyer
ninth and Robby Gordon 10th. Pole-sitter Paul Menard was 11th, with J.J,
Yeley, subbing for an ill Tony Stewart, in 12th, Michael Waltrip 13th, Kurt
Busch 14th and Kvapil 15th.
With drafting help from Kvapil, Kurt Busch was up to eighth on Lap 157 and
was fifth on Lap 157, when a multi-car crash entering Turn 3 involving
Johnson, Hamlin, Yeley, Dave Blaney and David Reutimann brought out the 10th
caution period and set up a green-white-checkered finish.
Kyle Busch led on the final restart, with Jeff Gordon second, Edwards third,
Kenseth fourth, Kurt Busch fifth, Ragan sixth, Kahne seventh, Waltrip
eighth, Martin ninth and Bowyer 10th.
Edwards spun Gordon out in Turn 1 after the green flag flew, but the race
stayed under green. It was wild double-file racing when the pack crossed the
line to take the white flag, indicating one lap to go.
The pack bumped and shuffled during the final circuit and coming down to the
checkers, a multi-car melee involving Waltrip, Kvapil, Blaney, Sam Hornish
Jr. and others saw the race end under yet another yellow flag and created a
scoring nightmare as officials tried to determine the finishing order.
The unofficial results showed Kyle Busch taking his sixth win of the season,
with Edwards second, Kenseth third, Kurt Busch fourth and Ragan fifth. Robby
Gordon, Kahne, Earnhardt, Bowyer and Martin rounded out the top-10
finishers. Penske Racing's rookie competitor Hornish was listed as 29th on
the unofficial results sheet, while Newman, who looked to have winning
potential before getting caught up in the late-race crash, was credited with
a 36th-place finish.
"Kurt gave me a lot of credit for our win last weekend at Loudon (New
Hampshire Motor Speedway), but tonight's credit belongs to Kurt," said crew
chief Pat Tryson. "With a brand new car and facing all the problems we did,
some how he was able to dig deep when it counted most and get a top-five out
of it. I've always thought that he was definitely among the top-five plate
racers in the sport and he certainly reinforced that here tonight. It was a
case where the driver was a ton better than the car and he was able to work
his magic at the end."
The unofficial point standings after 18 races have been completed on the
2008 schedule show Kyle Busch (2,686 points) leading second-place Earnhardt
(2,504) by 182 points. Stewart is 12th with 2,145 points. Kurt Busch (1,954
points) maintained his 18th position in the points, but clipped another 31
points off his deficit to 12th with tonight's performance. He is now 191
point out of 12th, with eight races remaining to determine the 12 players in
this years "Chase for the Championship."
-credit: pr
