Ryan Newman recorded his first top-10 finish of the season Sunday, while Kurt Busch had to fight mechanical problems in his Miller Lite Dodge Charger after losing a lap in the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Newman’s Alltel Dodge Charger led the Dodge contingent with its eighth-place finish, and was the only Dodge in the top 10 at the checkered flag. With the top-10 finish, Newman gained seven positions in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup point standing to move into 15th. He is now 14 points behind the 10th-place Elliott Sadler, and 167 in arrears to leader Mark Martin.
“It was a good run for us. We’re happy to have the Alltel Dodge in the top 10 on an intermediate track at the end of 400 miles, ” said Newman, who led once for one lap.
“We’ve got more things to work on. We were by far not the fastest car, but we’ve made huge improvements. Michael Nelson (crew chief) and the guys are doing a great job. The Penske-Jasper engines are strong. We’ve just got to keep on working making it stick in the corners. It’s turning around. “
After starting 39th, Newman quickly fought his way through the field, reaching the top 15 by lap 12. He then ran in the top 15 for the majority of the race on the 1.5-mile track.
“We didn’t have a good Friday here for sure, ” Newman said in reference to his poor qualifying effort. “I was disappointed, but I didn’t let it get me down. I knew we were a lot better than we qualified. It was a good effort for us to fight back the way we did. We avoided a lot of accidents. “
Busch, who finished 26th one lap off the pace, also avoided the accidents that resulted in nine caution flags for 40 laps, but he couldn’t sidestep a pit road speeding penalty and mechanical problems with his Miller Lite Dodge.
“We had a pretty good car at the beginning of the race, probably capable of a top-10 finish, but when our luck changed it became our goal just to survive out there, ” Busch said after the race. “During the first long stretch of green, the car really started pushing and we dropped back through the field drastically. We didn’t get a caution that we needed to try to get the car handling better and had to pit under the green. When we pitted, NASCAR said I was speeding entering pit road (on lap 151) and slapped us with a drive-through penalty. “
The penalty cost Busch a lap and dropped him outside the top 25.
“At the same time we had our handling problems, something went wrong with the engine, ” Busch explained. “The temperatures shot way up and we lost the great power we needed. To make matters worse, the thing started smoking and there was a fuming fog in the cockpit for about the last 100 laps of the race. It became a situation of just trying to finish the race and pick up all the points we could. “
Despite the Miller Lite team’s efforts, Busch dropped four positions in the point standings to 23rd. After three races, he is 214 points out of first and 61 points behind 10th.
BUSCH SERIES
LAS VEGAS, Nev. (March 10, 2007) - Kurt Busch led three times for 42 laps in Saturday’s Sam’s Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but he eventually had to settle for a fourth-place finish in his first NASCAR Busch Series race this season in his Penske Truck Rental Dodge Charger.
In eight career NBS races, Busch now possesses six top-five and seven top-10 finishes.
“It’s great to be running some Busch races for Roger (Penske, team owner), ” Busch said immediately after Saturday’s race. “It’s great to be in that yellow car. “
Busch was leading with 61 laps remaining, but relinquished the No. 1 position when he pitted on lap 140 at the beginning of the ninth caution period. The Matt Gimbel-led crew serviced Busch’s Penske Truck Rental Dodge with tires and fuel, but Busch found himself restarting the race in 11th.
When the race on the 1.5-mile track returned to green-flag conditions, Busch immediately began charging to the front, refusing to let three yellow flags in the final 44 laps slow him. When the 10th caution period ended on lap 161, Busch was sixth. He gained three more positions before the 11th yellow flag on lap 183, and remained in third until the final restart following the record 12th caution period on lap 194. It was a caution period that included an 11-minute 19-second red flag on lap 191 so track personnel could clear the three-car accident on the backstretch.
When the race restarted for the final time, Busch, whose Dodge had suffered sheet metal damage on the left front quarter panel earlier in the race, found himself in an intense duel with Tony Stewart for third. A duel Busch lost as he was fourth and Stewart third at the checkered flag.
“It was a good run for us today, ” said Busch, who with his younger brother, Kyle, dominated the race, as the two led a total of 123 laps in the 200-lap event. “We just weren’t quick enough at go time. We ended up tight at the end, but we were loose most of the day. “
Even though Busch’s Dodge was loose for the majority of the race, he didn’t encounter the problems that many of his fellow competitors did, as they fought a hard compound tire that provided them little or no grip on the newly-repaved track. It was a condition that at least one driver equated to “driving on black ice. ” And it’s the tire data Busch gathered Saturday that he believes will benefit him in Sunday’s UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 NEXTEL Cup race.
“With the hard tires and the small fuel cell, it will come down to that (tires) all day long (Sunday) - two versus four - or maybe even no tires at all, ” Busch said when talking about race strategy for the 400-mile Cup event.
Busch’s next race in the Penske Truck Rental Dodge has him returning to the site of his NBS debut and his inaugural victory in the series - Texas Motor Speedway. The race on the 1.5-mile track is scheduled for April 14.
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