Busch Qualifies 12th at Homestead in Miller Lite Dodge
HOMESTEAD, Fla. (Nov. 20, 2009) - Kurt Busch will start his Miller Lite
Dodge Charger in the 12th spot for Sunday's Ford 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup
Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Busch turned in an
official time trial lap of 31.433 seconds (171.794 mph) behind the wheel of
his No. 2 Penske Racing Dodge named "Patriot."
"It was a decent lap," said Busch, who had clocked in with the fastest lap
in practice (31.136 seconds/173.433 mph) leading up to qualifying. "The car
was sliding around a little too much. We were the fastest in practice so we
couldn't adjust the car that much. We wanted to leave it along and it slid
around a little bit too much.
"We're 40 points behind Jeff Gordon," said Busch, who was 10th out in the
qualifying order. "If we have a good run and he doesn't have the best of
days, we could gain 40 points on him and bump us up to third in points.
Qualifying is important at all places, but some more so than others. Here,
with the multiple grooves, qualifying is not the most important thing. It
helps to get a good pit box selection so you're not fighting the
track-position game from the get-go. One thing that is fun about this race
is it starts in the day and goes into night."
"We were hoping for a better starting spot, but I think we'll be just fine
for the race," said crew chief Pat Tryson, who will be atop the No. 2 team
pit box for the final time here on Sunday. "We got in a lot of laps in race
trim here today and we'll really get our Miller Lite Dodge dialed in here
tomorrow in the two practice sessions."
-credit: pr
