KURT BUSCH OVERCOMES THE OBSTACLES & WINS AT BRISTOL
-Miller Lite Dodge Driver Names Winning Car “Rusty” In Honor Of Former No. 2 Driver-
BRISTOL, Tenn. (March 26, 2006) – The late Alan Kulwicki, the 1992 NASCAR champion and a two-time winner here at Bristol Motor Speedway, had a favorite quote that came from legendary Green Bay Packer coach Vince Lombardi: “Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off the goal.”
Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch certainly must have been motivated by similar thoughts as he overcame tremendous disadvantages to claim the win here in today’s Food City 500.
“It was a monumental win, to say the least,” said Busch, who was enjoying his 15th career Cup win and fifth here in the B.M.S. Victory Lane. “Yes, it was the first win for us in the Miller Lite Dodge – my first win for Penske Racing. But, the way we won it will always stand out in my mind. It’s unbelievable when you think of overcoming those obstacles here at Bristol to take that first win.
"We started off the race where I wasn't able to communicate with the team,” explained Busch, who jumped 11 spots up in the point standings with today’s run and now is 16th after five races. “I could hear them, but they couldn’t hear anything I said. That didn’t get our team down like it could have most of them here at this place.
“We went through a quick little practice run and devised a signal system where if I touched the A pillar the car was a little tight. If I touched the door it was a little loose. We ran with that all the way up to the red flag. Then during the red flag, that's when I was able to get the second radio out and talk into it on the mike, and that was the only way they could hear me. We had a rough day with that.
“If that wasn’t bad enough, we got a flat tire early in the day,” Busch said of the flat right rear tire he encountered on Lap 61 after taking the lead from Greg Biffle, who had experienced a similar setback. “That put us one lap down. We came down pit road under the green and Roy (McCauley, crew chief) saw that the lefts were okay. He made the call to go with rights only and that saved us from going two laps down. We were able to race our way back and get the Lucky Dog and work our way through the pack, sometimes on the high side, sometimes on the low side.”
It was only 11 laps after Busch’s tire problems that the second yellow flag of the race flew, this caution for a multi-car crash in Turn 1. Busch was all the way back in the 38th spot, running one lap down to leader Tony Stewart, for the Lap 78 restart.
Busch was patient in getting around the other lapped cars and into the “Lucky Dog” spot during the next 10 laps, getting great help from spotter Jeremy Brickhouse and coaching from Roger Penske’s “Lieutenant” Walt Czarnecki.
When another multi-car crash occurred in Turn 4 brought out the third caution period of the race, Busch got the free pass to rejoin the lead lap racers.
Witnessing Busch, McCauley and crew continuously massage their Dodge into top competitive form – using their hand signal system and without the driver being able to communicate via a working two-way radio – was a true spectacle in itself.
Busch was back up to 18th when Jeff Burton’s spin on Lap 159 brought out eh sixth caution period of the race and he’d cracked the top 15 when another massive pileup forced red flag conditions on Lap 193.
Under the red, Busch was able to pull the backup radio from its harness and communicate directly through its face speaker. The team then pinpointed the radio problem being in Busch’s helmet microphone. Busch and crew were able to remedy the situation to where they had limited, yet workable, two-way radio communication for the remainder of the race.
With several cars pitting prior to the Lap 200 restart, Busch was all the way back up to 10th when the green flag flew once again. Busch made steady progress through the field after that. He was ninth after a caution on Lap 206 for debris and eighth on a Lap 223 restart after another yellow flag caused by debris on the track.
When rookie Brent Sherman spun on the backstretch on Lap 249 to bring out the ninth yellow of the race, all the leaders hit pit road. A 12.824-second pit stop had Busch and the Miller Lite Dodge back up to third.
Busch was up to second, behind leader Stewart, on the Lap 294 restart after the 11th caution period of the day. He scooted around Stewart to reclaim the lead on Lap 386 and held the point until the 13th yellow of the day flew on Lap 407 when Kevin Lepage stalled against the Turn 4 wall.
Even thought McCauley’s lightning-fast Miller Lite Dodge team gave Busch a 12.692-second stop, Matt Kenseth’s crew got him out first. Busch was second, a hard-charging Kevin Harvick was third, Jeff Gordon fourth and Stewart fifth.
Through three additional cautions, Busch threatened to reclaim the lead from ex-teammate Kenseth. He finally got his opportunity to pass Kenseth with only four laps remaining in the race.
"The last restart, Matt got a great restart,” Busch explained of the final portion of today’s 500-lap battle. “It looked like I was sleeping. I chased him down lap after lap. We wore our tires out. We were out there for about a hundred laps. We wore our tires out with running too hard of a pace. When he got the lapped cars they wouldn't yield to him, yet he couldn't pass them because he wore out his tires. I was in the same boat.
“When I caught up to him he was real tight in the center of one and two,” Busch said of the closing laps of the race. “He got loose. I bumped into him a little bit and that was our window to go for the lead. If I was still a teammate with him, maybe I would have let him lift, but I was hungry to drive the Miller Lite Dodge into victory lane. Today was a big victory for us. This is the Bristol atmosphere of bumping and grinding. I've seen Jeff Gordon win many races here, and take a few races away from Rusty for that matter.
“That's part of Bristol,” Busch said. “Next week is another short track. If we're leading and he's running second and he bumps me out of the way, I'd understand. That's what goes on, man. This racing is awesome. Fans dig it. That's the big thing about Bristol. You have to come to race hard. You have to be able to hoist up the trophy at the end of the day without any grudges."
Busch had a special cell phone call while celebrating his big win in Victory Lane – from Rusty Wallace – former driver of the Miller Lite Dodge and a true legend in this sport. He couldn’t wait to tell his friend and driving champion-now-turned-broadcaster what he had done to pay tribute.
“To have Rusty call me in victory lane, it's very emotional to drive his car and to drive for Roger Penske and Miller Lite and Dodge and all of our great sponsors,” an emotional Busch explained. “For him to congratulate me, and that one was for the team. That's what he had said. When I mentioned for him it's a tradition and he said 'of course.' And I said, 'I'm going to name this car Rusty.' You could almost see he had a tear to his eye, and he had a great day in his first day of broadcasting. It's definitely a very family atmosphere at Penske with hanging out with Roger at the Super Bowl to hanging out with the team at the race shop. Even when we come here to the track. Everybody gets excited a little bit, but it's still about putting your arm around the guy at the end of the day going, 'You know what? We had a good day, whether we won or whether we finished 16th.'”
Instead, Busch was celebrating his first victory driving for Penske Racing and having a blast with crew chief Roy McCauley, who claimed his first Cup win with Busch here today.
"The Miller Lite Dodge was good all day, but I'm not sure how good it would have been without Kurt behind the wheel,” said McCauley. “The team did a great job. We got a little bit behind with the flat tire. We took two once, I changed my mind from four to two and just gambled it was going to be the right sides that were the problem. Kurt couldn't talk to us at that point because of the radio problem. Once we saw the left sides were up we just went for two to try to stay one lap down only. It worked out, and Kurt drove a very hard set of laps afterward to maintain one lap. Once we got back on the lead lap it was a matter of picking our battles to get our track position back. Once we got our track position back we broke into the top five and it was a matter of maintaining that and see what we could get. There's really nothing more than needs to be said. It's hard racing at Bristol. You didn't see anything today you haven't seen the last 10 years here."
With brother, Kyle, winning in yesterday’s Sharpie Mini 300, it was a sweep for the Busch Brothers here at Bristol this weekend.
"To have Kyle's success on Saturday and then to win on Sunday is very satisfying,” Busch beamed. “It's gratifying to see that the Busch Brothers can definitely learn from one another and can definitely put their arm around one another through hard times such as last year. To have him come up through the ranks so quick, I think it's a testament to what our dad instilled in us about how to drive racecars. My father, Tom, was right there every waking moment through my racing career. I was there for Kyle. Dad was there for Kyle, and I think we helped him mature as a driver. He might have come up quicker. He's 20 years old. He's winning races at the Cup level. He's phenomenal. He's a great talent. I said it all along. I've been chasing him all year long. He's been out my windshield. Today he was in my rear view mirror. One point for Kurt, but Kyle is running real strong. I'm proud of him."
At the end of the day, it was a performance that even Coach Lombardi would have been proud of.
Busch’s victory here came at an official 0.179-second advantage over runner-up Harvick. Kenseth finished third, with Carl Edwards fourth and Bobby Labonte fifth. Mark Martin, Biffle, Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne rounded out today’s top 10 finishers.
Busch is now 16th in the Cup point standings, trailing leader Kenseth by 251 points. However, he is only 62 points behind 10th-place Dale Jarrett. Leader Kenseth has 782 points. Kahne is second with 774, Jimmie Johnson third with 763, Martin fourth with 750 and Kyle Busch fifth with 677. Rounding out the top 10 are Dale Earnhardt Jr. (664), Jeff Gordon (644), Casey Mears (642), Stewart (601) and Jarrett (593).
The NASCAR NEXTEL Cup tour now heads to the .526-mile Martinsville Speedway for the second consecutive short track race of the young 2006 season. This weekend’s action gets under way on Friday with a practice session from 12:05 p.m. until 1:35 p.m. leading up to the single round of qualifying at 3:40 p.m., which will determine all 43 starting positions for Sunday’s race. Saturday’s schedule offers practice sessions from 9:00 a.m. till 10:00 a.m. and from 10:35 a.m. till 11:20 a.m. Sunday’s DIRECTV 500 is scheduled to get the green flag at 2:00 p.m. and features live coverage by FOX-TV and MRN Radio.
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