but first, these notes of interest:

-- Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch enjoyed a very successful 200th career NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race last weekend at Infineon Raceway.  After taking his first road course pole (and fifth of his career) on Friday, KB finished fifth, scoring his career’s 46th top-five finish (23.0%) and 84th top-10 (42.0%).  The fifth at Infineon was his third consecutive top-10 finish (second at Pocono, ninth at Michigan & fifth at Infineon).  The 5.3 average finish during that period has allowed him to advance four spots in the points (from 18th up to 14th) and cut his deficit to 10th in the standings by a whopping 100 points (was 265 behind brother Kyle before the Pocono race and now trails Kevin Harvick by 165 points).

-- KB, Roy and team running their PRS-085 Miller Lite Dodge at Daytona International Speedway this weekend.  It will be the first race for KB in this car.  “We raced the 84 car in the Daytona 500 and had a strong run going before getting crashed out of it late in the race,” KB noted.  “I guess 85 is one better than 84, so it’ll have to be a strong car,” Roy joked.  “Seriously, we had a good shot at winning the 500 until the crash.  Kurt loves the (restrictor-) plate racing.  Our team is performing really well right now, with three straight top-10 finishes.  We’re looking to continue that momentum down at Daytona.”

-- KB has recorded four top-five finishes in his 11 career starts on the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway, including runner-up finishes in the 2003 and 2005 Daytona 500s.  His best finish in the Pepsi 400 came in 2004, when he finished fourth.  KB’s best career starting spot at Daytona is 13th, his starting position for three different races, including February’s Daytona 500.

-- KB moved up two spots in the NEXTEL Cup point standings with his fifth-place finish Sunday at Infineon.  His deficit to 10th was cut by 22 points.  Kevin Harvick dropped to the 10th spot with his 24th-place finish on Sunday, while Greg Biffle’s fourth-place finish moved him up to ninth.  KB now trails Harvick by 165 points, with 10 more races to make up the ground.  He is 92 points behind 13th-place Carl Edwards.

-- KB scheduled to appear at Fan Fest at Daytona USA on Friday from 2:30 p.m. till 3:15 p.m.

-- KB’s been adding venues to his list.  In his effort to attend games at every Major League Baseball venue in the country, KB visited the Colorado Rockies’ stadium in Denver on June 20 en route to the race at Sonoma, Calif.  He was scheduled to hit the new Busch Stadium in St. Louis on Monday (6/26) on his way to a test day at the Milwaukee Mile on Tuesday (6/27).

-- KB, Roy & crew testing their PRS-103 Miller Lite Dodge (same care they raced at Richmond on 5/6/06) at the Milwaukee Mile on Tuesday (6/27/06) in preparation for the July 16 race at New Hampshire International Speedway.

-- The “Kenseth Scale” – KB, Roy & crew continue to compare their run toward making the Chase this year to the remarkable comeback Matt Kenseth had in 2005 in making the cut.  After 16 races last season, Kenseth was 20th in the standings, trailing 10th-place Jamie McMurray by 271 points.

-- “The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none.” –Thomas Carlyle

BUSCH WANTS WHAT WAS “LEFT ON TABLE IN FEBRUARY” IN PEPSI 400
-Miller Lite Dodge Driver Looking To Continue Rise Toward Top-10 NEXTEL Cup Points Position-

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.  (June 27, 2006) – Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch has made up a whopping 100 points in just the last three races in his quest to make this year’s NASCAR “Chase for the Championship.”  He and his Roy McCauley-led team are hoping that another strong showing in Saturday’s Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway will continue their surge toward the top 10 in the standings.

            “We feel that we left a lot on the table the last time we were at Daytona, back in February for the 500,” said Busch, who claimed the pole and finished fifth on California’s Infineon Raceway’s road course last weekend.  “We had a strong car in the Daytona 500 – one capable of finishing up front – before we got crashed out of it.”

            Busch started February’s Daytona 500 in the 13th spot, but wasted little time in showing that he had a strong Miller Lite Dodge.  He was up to ninth after just four laps and was seventh on the very next lap. 

            After bouncing back from problems during an early caution flag pit stop, Busch worked his way back up to seventh prior to the second caution of the race, which came out on Lap 49.  A 14.133-second stop under that yellow helped move Busch all the way up to third for the ensuing restart.

            Busch worked to position himself to lead the race.  Under the third yellow of the race, which came out on Lap 79 for a multi-car crash, he led Lap 81 on the pit lane and picked up the five bonus points for doing so.

            The 2004 NEXTEL Cup champion was able to continuously pilot his blue No. 2 Dodge to the front of the pack after the next four restarts after cautions, working the draft extremely well with Penske Racing South teammate Ryan Newman.  The Dodge duo first and second on Lap 167 and were already plotting strategy to pit together for the final time should the race have stayed under the green.

            Travis Kvapil tagged the Turn 4 wall on Lap 176 to bring out the eighth yellow flag of the race.  A 16.840-second stop on Lap 177 placed Busch 11th in order for the Lap 179 restart.  An air pressure adjustment worked to loosen the chassis up a bit to Busch’s liking.

            “Okay, Roy…count the laps down 15 to go, 10 to go, five to go,” Busch radioed to his crew chief as the “2 car” climbed back up to the sixth spot on Lap 183.  “We’re really good now.”

            McCauley was able to give only the 15 to go count, unfortunately, as the cars went from single file to double file on Lap 186.  In the middle of Turns 1 and 2, Jamie McMurray moved in closely on the rear bumper of Busch.  He continued his aggressive action exiting the turn and tagged Busch hard, sending the Miller Lite Dodge into the outside concrete, first crushing the right side and then badly damaging the entire rear of the car.  The crash ended Busch’s day and produced a disappointing 38th-place finish.

            “We had such a great car all day,” Busch recalled.  “I was so proud of the team. The Miller Lite Dodge was so strong right out of the box.  We had a great time working with my teammate Ryan Newman, who went on to finish third.  Like I said, we know we left a lot out there on the table back in February.  We can’t wait to get back down there and give it another shot at finally winning a restrictor-plate race.

            “Starting the season off like that really put us in a hole as far as the points went,” said Busch.  “But we’re coming back, scratching and clawing to get all the points we can and giving it our best shot to get back up there and make the Chase.”

            Busch was 38th in the standings after the Daytona race, but a win at Bristol in the fifth race of the season had him back up to 16th.  He trailed then-leader Matt Kenseth by 251 points.  A disastrous three-race stretch in May, ending with a 39th-place finish at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, had garage insiders already writing Busch off as a 2006 Chase contender.

            Busch, McCauley and crew have mounted an impressive charge back up the points ladder during the month of June.  After finishing 16th at Dover, Del., Busch claimed the runner-up finishing spot at Pocono, Pa., the following week and finished ninth two weeks ago at Brooklyn, Mich.  Busch’s June charge to the front continued at Sonoma, Calif., last weekend with his fifth-place tally after starting from the pole.  The 5.3 average finish during that three-race period has allowed him to advance four spots in the points (from 18th up to 14th) and cut his deficit to 10th in the standings by a whopping 100 points (was 265 behind brother Kyle before the Pocono race and now trails Kevin Harvick by 165 points).

“We were running on adrenaline early on,” Busch said of his season so far.  “Now we’re really starting to click. There’s plenty of time left for things to go right and for us to get the job done.  We feel like we we’re poised to do what we need to do.”

Busch’s overall Daytona career record entering this weekend boasts four top-five finishes in 11 races.  He started 34th and finished second in his only Daytona NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race.  He also has runner-up finishes in two of his three Daytona career IROC races.  Busch’s overall career restrictor-plate race record sports eight top-five finishes and 12 top-10 finishes in 22 races.  He finished third in only his second career plate race, on April 22, 2001, at Talladega Superspeedway, his first career Cup start on that mammoth 2.66-mile Alabama track.

* * *

This weekend’s schedule at Daytona calls for practice on Thursday from 4:00 p.m. till 5:00 p.m. and from 6:00 p.m. till 6:45 p.m.  A single round of qualifying at 4:35 p.m. on Friday will determine Saturday’s 43-car stating field and the cars will be impounded immediately after qualifying.  Saturday night’s Pepsi 400 (160 laps) has a 7:55 p.m. EDT starting time and features live coverage by FOX-TV and MRN Radio.

# # #