Bristol Motor Speedway, August 25th – 28th
NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series: Sharpie 500, 7:30PM, August 28
Kurt Busch
Team: No. 97 Sharpie RT Ford Taurus
Owner: Jack Roush
Crew Chief: Jimmy Fennig
Chassis: #46 (won both races in 2003 and the Food City 500 earlier this year)
Kurt Busch on racing at Bristol Motor Speedway:
"Things are going well in the Sharpie camp. Every time we get a chance to look forward to Bristol, obviously the team gets pumped up about the event and of course our sponsor Sharpie always gets excited because they get to do extra things around that event. It's that season where kids get to go back to school and the products are flowing off the shelves. It's timely for advertising and it's timely for us to try to pick up a win in the Sharpie 500. We're one of those teams that can't afford a bad day. We've got some cushion in case we miss the setup that we'll still run competitively enough to gain points. But Bristol is by no means a track that we're going to miss the setup on as well as California Speedway, the race after it, and then of course with preparations for Richmond, that's the final race where we get locked in for this Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup.”
Crew Chief Jimmy Fennig on racing at Bristol Motor Speedway:
“I’ve been coming here for a long time, but nothing gets you more excited than going to Bristol. As a crew chief, you’re plenty busy and you don’t have the luxury of a lot of time before you have to make a call sometimes. Everything happens faster here. Bristol has been good to us the past couple of years, and we’ve had a nice run of top-10’s, and we’d love for it to continue this weekend at the Sharpie 500.”
Fast Facts
Kurt Busch posted his third consecutive top-10 finish and fourth in the last five races with a sixth-place effort at Michigan last week. The performance improved him to sixth in the 2004 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series standings after spending the past three race weeks in seventh. He moved 45 points ahead of current seventh-place Elliott Sadler and trails fifth-place Matt Kenseth by 109 points.
Busch has been dominant at Bristol, where he has won the last three races at the .533-mile oval and four of the last five. The only miss during that span, which began with his first career series triumph in the spring event of 2002, was a sixth in the fall race that season.
Busch has led at least 45 laps in each of his last five visits, including 100 or more in his last three. However, the earliest Busch has led in each of the races that he has won at Bristol was after half-way. The earliest lap he led was lap 359 in March 2003.
Earlier this season, Busch started 13th and led 119 laps en route to the victory. He has qualified among the top 10 in three of his last four starts, including a best of fifth in this event last season.
Busch will run a special paint scheme for the Sharpie 500 featuring the new Sharpie Retractable marker, a pen that will “single-handedly change the way I sign autographs” notes Busch.
