Busch Finishes Second in First PIR Visit

Kyle Busch

AVONDALE, AZ (Nov. 7) – It’s been said that records are made to be broken. That phrase is becoming familiar to Kyle Busch and his No. 5 Team Lowe’s Racing crew, as the rookie driver and his team continue to raise the bar in NASCAR Busch Series competition.

After breaking the Busch Series’ track qualifying record at Phoenix International Raceway (PIR) in Arizona on Thursday, Busch capped off the weekend by shattering the record for most laps led by a Raybestos Rookie driver in a single season on his way to a second-place finish in Saturday’s Busch Series event at PIR.

Entering the weekend, Busch needed to lead just seven laps in Saturday’s race to break Greg Biffle’s rookie record of 948 laps led in a season. Busch quickly accomplished that goal and much more, leading all but 53 laps of the event in his No. 5 Lowe’s / Gladiator Garageworks Chevrolet.

While it was a record-breaking weekend for Busch and his team, there is one record that still eludes the young driver and his crew. Busch headed into Saturday’s event tied with Biffle for the record of having the most wins by a Raybestos Rookie in a single Busch Series season (both drivers have five). Given Busch’s dominating performance on Saturday, it appeared that record might also fall, but it was not to be.

Running in second place for much of the day, Jamie McMurray made a daring outside pass on Busch to take the lead on lap 193, and held off Busch’s charge during the remaining 12 laps to claim the victory.

"It was an overall good day for the Lowe's Chevrolet,” Busch said. “The guys did an awesome job on pit stops and gave me a great piece in order to go out there and lead the most laps today. There's nothing much more to say than the driver came up short today, two weeks in a row. It's just a shame."

The runner-up result marked the 15th top-five finish and the 21st top-10 finish of the 2004 season for Busch and his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team. Busch and Biffle are now tied for the record of most top-10 finishes by a rookie in a single Busch Series season (21).

It was also the seventh time this season that Busch has led the most laps in a Busch Series event, and the 24th time this season he has been named the Raybestos Rookie of the Race.

Throughout the race, Busch and McMurray were clearly the class of the field. The two drivers appeared to be in evenly matched cars, swapping the lead and running first and second throughout the event. In fact, Busch never dropped below second position the entire race.

Busch led in the early going, in spite of a loose handling condition on his No. 5 entry. During the second caution period of the event on lap 35, Busch brought his car to pit road for fresh tires, fuel and chassis adjustments to fix the handling condition.

Quick work by the No. 5 pit crew sent Busch back out in first place as the field returned to green flag racing on lap 38. Busch retained the lead until lap 84, when a tight handling condition on the No. 5 machine allowed McMurray to pass Busch and take over the lead for the next 15 circuits. When an accident on lap 99 brought out the caution flag, Busch and the other leaders ducked on to pit road for service.

Busch’s crew had another stellar pit stop, getting Busch off pit road ahead of McMurray for the lap 104 restart. Mike Wallace, who elected not to pit during the caution period, led the field to the green flag, but by the time the leaders got back to the start/finish line, Busch had retaken the lead.

Busch and McMurray continued to pace the field over the next 26 laps before McMurray was able to get by the No. 5 Team Lowe’s Racing entry and retake the lead on lap 131. A caution for debris on lap 148 allowed the leaders to come back to pit road for what would be their final pit stop of the event.

Again, Busch’s crew got their driver back out on track ahead of McMurray following the stop. Busch regained the lead after passing Kenny Wallace, who had chosen to only take fuel during his pit stop, just after the restart.

Busch stayed out front until a caution flag came out on lap 169 for oil on the track. When track workers completed their cleanup, the race returned to green flag conditions on lap 175 with Busch still leading the field.

McMurray managed to get underneath Busch and make the pass for the lead on the restart, but Busch charged back and regained the lead on the following lap. Busch and McMurray ran nose to tail for the next 13 laps, until the eighth caution flag of the event was displayed for an accident in turn three of the one-mile facility.

When the race restarted on lap 192, McMurray went to the high side of the track and managed to get by Busch to take the lead for the final time. A five car accident on lap 196 bunched the field back up for a green/white/checkered flag finish, but Busch was unable to get back by McMurray in the final laps.

"I didn't think (McMurray) was going to go to the outside, and I thought about doing the same thing back to him, but I figured he knew that I was going to go to the bottom because that's where I'd run all day,” Busch said of the final pass. “Hindsight is 20/20. I could have (gone) to the high side, he could have went there because that's where he wouldn't have gone blocking the bottom for me. It's so hard to figure it out. I just couldn't get back by him. My car was too tight behind him."

Busch and the No. 5 team also gained ground for the second week in a row on Martin Truex, Jr., and the No. 8 team in the running for the 2004 NASCAR Busch Series championship. With two races remaining, Busch and his team sit 161 points out of the points lead.

The team will now make its second visit of the season to “The Track Too Tough to Tame,” aka Darlington Raceway in South Carolina. The No. 5 crew is the defending event champion, winning the September Busch Series race at the egg-shaped track last year with driver Brian Vickers. Busch, driving the No. 87 Chevy, finished second that day.

Darlington is also the site of the first pole position of Busch’s Busch Series career, which he claimed in the March event at the 1.366-mile facility.

The 200-mile NASCAR Busch Series race will air live from Darlington Raceway on Sat., Nov. 13, at 1 p.m. EST on TNT and MRN Radio affiliates.