Kurt Busch’s quest to land a berth in this year’s Chase for the Nextel Cup Championship was a knee-skinning, fingernail-ripping uphill climb.
He had to tunnel his way to daylight after starting the season with a 41st-place finish in the Daytona 500, overcome an early-summer flail job in which he sank to 17th in points and then strung together nine straight finishes of 11th or better just to secure a berth in the 12-driver Chase.
Now, just when he should be able to breathe in some sweet air and enjoy the result of all that, he is forced to start clawing anew. He has sunk to 11th in the Chase standings and will somehow — he hopes, beginning with Sunday’s LifeLock 400 at Kansas Speedway — have to find a way to make up 151 points on leader Jeff Gordon if Busch is going to win his second Cup championship. By Jim Pedley, Kansascity
In 2004, Busch started the 10-race postseason with a victory at New Hampshire and went on to post eight more top-10 finishes as he held on to beat Jimmie Johnson by just eight points for the title.
His only slip-up down the stretch came at Atlanta in the seventh race of the Chase, with an engine failure relegating the then-Roush Racing driver to a 42nd-place finish.
Busch, who now drives for Penske Racing, has been one of the hottest drivers in the Cup series since July, when Pat Tryson became his crew chief. Sportsillustrated.cnn
The No. 2 Dodge finished 25th at New Hampshire after starting third thanks to a broken carburetor shaft and then last week in the Dodge Dealers 400 at Dover International Speedway, Busch again had a top-five run going only to see it end after he blew a tire and ended up in the Turn 2 wall with 15 laps to go.
Yet, sitting in 11th place, 151 points behind leader Jeff Gordon, this team will not allow themselves to get down.
“We’re all into it with an absolute 100 percent effort, but you can’t change things that are beyond your control,” Busch said. “It’s certainly frustrating, but just like Pat [Tryson, crew chief] has been saying; we have to take them one race at a time.” By NASCAR.com
So, what to make of Kurt Busch’s slow start in this year’s Chase? The 2004 champion—who won the title in the Chase’s first season—is dead last in the standings and staring at a 151-point deficit to leader Jeff Gordon.
He finished 25th at New Hampshire to get off on the wrong foot and then stepped on that foot with a 29th-place run at Dover. He won the title in 2004 by driving consistently—a la Matt Kenseth—by finishing in the top 10 nine times. By Jeff Bleiler, Mlive.com
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