Kurt Busch Advance
Bristol Motor Speedway
August 25th-27th, 2005 NEXTEL Cup Series
Sharpie 500, Saturday 7:30PM
Kurt Busch
Team: No. 97 Sharpie Mini Ford Taurus
Crew Chief: Jimmy Fennig
Chassis: #66 (finished ninth at Dover in the spring)
Busch on racing at Bristol Motor Speedway:
“I’m really proud of what the No. 97 Sharpie team has accomplished at Bristol over the last few years, and I’m looking forward to getting back out on the track and seeing if we can win another one. It’s definitely one of the most exciting races in our sport, and it’s the perfect race to launch the new Sharpie Mini.”
Crew Chief Jimmy Fennig on racing at Bristol Motor Speedway:
“I’ve been going to races 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 the Sharpie team the past couple of years, and we’ve had a nice run of top-10’s until our spring race here where we were in the top 10 until we got caught up in a wreck, so we’d like to get back on track this weekend for the Sharpie 500.”
Fast Facts
Kurt Busch dropped one spot to seventh in the NEXTEL Cup standings after his 12th top-10 finish of the season (seventh) last week at Michigan. The No. 97 team is now 420 points behind leader Tony Stewart with three races remaining until the beginning of the “Chase for the NEXTEL Cup.”
At Michigan, Busch led the most laps (65 of 200) for the third time this season (219 at Phoenix in April and 131 at Pocono in July).
Busch has competed in nine races at Bristol with six top-10 finishes, including four victories. He won the spring race in 2004, both events in 2003 and the first race of 2002. He placed eighth in this race last year and 35th in April after a collision, ending a six-race streak of top-10 finishes dating to March 2002. Busch has a 13.3 average finish at Bristol.
Busch’s first career Cup victory came at Bristol on March 24, 2002. Busch led 89 laps on the way to the win. He has picked up four wins at the half-mile track in his past seven starts.
Busch’s No. 97 Ford Taurus carries a special red and black paint scheme for the new Sharpie Mini, a marker half the size of a regular Sharpie.
