PIT PROBLEMS & HANDLING WOES SEES BUSCH FINISH 19TH AT DARLINGTON
-Miller Lite Dodge Driver Still 18th In NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Points, Now 149 Points Out Of 10th-

DARLINGTON, S.C. (May 13, 2006) – Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch had a solid top-10 run going here in tonight’s Dodge Charger 500 at Darlington Raceway through most of the first half of the race.  However, a costly pit miscue under the fourth caution period of the evening saw the potentially strong run unravel, resulting in a 19th-place finish.

            Busch was running in the seventh position on Lap 149 when Tony Stewart spun in Turn 4 to bring out the fourth yellow flag of the race.  Busch and the rest of the leaders hit road for service.  While Busch’s Miller Lite Dodge was still up on the jack and the crew was finishing changing the left-side tires, the car lunged forward and fell off the jack.  The time lost in the pits saw Busch relegated to 19th for the Lap 155 restart.

            The potentially strong night for the Miller Lite Dodge team came undone after that.  Handling woes plagued Busch for the rest of the evening.  While the crew continued to make adjustments during the remainder of the race during two additional caution flag stops and one under the green, the car never returned to its original strength.

            “We were about a seventh-place car the first half of the race,” Busch said back in the garage after the race.  “The car rolled off the jack and that put us way back in the field. It was just way too loose or way too tight the rest of the night. Anything we did to it would make it go from one extreme to the other. Just the least adjustment made it go from super loose to super tight. It was just a really weird night.”

            In the final half of the race, Busch seesawed from 24th all the way back up to 13th and then back to finish 19th for the night.

            Up front, it was Greg Biffle taking his first win here tonight since the final race of 2005.  Biffle had the dominant car for most of the evening, but didn’t take the lead for good until with 49 laps remaining.  He withstood a hard charge by Jeff Gordon at the end to take his second straight win in this race.  Matt Kenseth finished third, with Jimmie Johnson fourth and Dale Earnhardt Jr. fifth.  Ryan Newman, Kyle Busch, Mark Martin, Jeff Burton and Denny Hamlin rounded out tonight’s top-10 finishers.

            Busch maintained his 18th position in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup point standings with 1,146 points.  He trails leader Jimmie Johnson (1,686) by 540 points, but most importantly is now 149 points out of 10th, the position held by Jeff Burton.  Currently, only the top 10 drivers are eligible for the “Chase for the Championship.”  There are 15 races remaining to determine who makes the cut for the final 10-race run to determine the 2006 champion.

            The NEXTEL Cup tour now heads to Lowe’s Motor Speedway for the next two weekends.  The series’ “All-Star Race” is set for next Saturday night on the newly repaved 1.5-mile track, while the Coca-Cola 600, the longest race of the season, is set for Sunday, May 28.

# # #