MARTINSVILLE, Va. (April 2, 2006) – With only 35 lap remaining in today’s DIRECTV 500 here at Martinsville Speedway, Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch appeared to be defeating the odds and heading toward a solid top-10 finish.
“The car was just wicked loose all day long, but we did all we could with what we had to work with,” said Busch, who moved up to 14th in the NEXTEL Cup point standings with his 11-th-place finish here today. “We finally took a half rubber out of the right rear spring and that got the car at least where I could get back on the gas exiting the corners.
“We were eighth on the restart with less than 50 laps to go (the Lap 455 restart after the 14th caution period of the day) and had just gotten around the 17 car for the seventh spot. We got back around the next time and he knocked me up the track. That allowed several cars to get around and dropped us back to 12th.
“I’m sure that was Matt’s way of stating his case from last week at Bristol,” Busch continued. “I was barely able to hang on and was lucky I didn’t get into the wall. I didn’t complain and just went on trying to make up those spots we lost. Like our spotter (Jeremy Brickhouse) said, I guess it’s even for us now.
“Anyhow, when the next yellow flew (on Lap 486 for Joe Nemechek’s spin), everyone in front of us stayed out and Roy (McCauley, crew chief) called me in for four fresh tires. Normally, that would have been a huge advantage. But with another caution flag flying before the end of the race and with our car being so evil loose off the corners, we just had to hang on to what we had.
“What was so frustrating was that the car was so great yesterday and so way off today,” said Busch. “It’s really baffling. We did a 50-lap run in yesterday’s final practice and I thought we really had a car capable of winning. Then, we got out there today and it was like driving a totally different car.
“Roy was saying late in the race that we would make a good big-picture day out of it,” Busch concluded. “We gained a couple of spots in the points, so that was a big positive that came out of today.”
Tony Stewart, who proved to have the strongest car for the majority of today’s race, came home the winner as he held off Jeff Gordon in what turned out to be a three-lap dash to the finish. Jimmie Johnson finished third, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. fourth, Kyle Busch fifth, Elliott Sadler sixth, Kevin Harvick seventh, Brian Vickers eighth, Jamie McMurray ninth and Scott Riggs 10th. Busch, rookie Reed Sorenson, Mark Martin, Sterling Marlin and Dale Jarrett rounded out today’s top-15 finishers.
Johnson regained the points lead here today and now has 933 points. Martin is second with 874, Kenseth third with 873, Kasey Kahne fourth with 832 and Kyle Busch fifth, also with 832 points. Kurt Busch is now 14th in the standings with 661. He trails leader Johnson by 272 points, but only 63 points behind 10th-place Casey Mears.