Kurt Busch No. 97 Smirnoff Ice Ford Taurus
Pepsi 400/Daytona International Raceway
July 2, 2005
Kurt Busch:
“We were so close to winning the 500 earlier this year. We finished fourth at this race last year. Our spring effort was our second runner-up finish at Daytona. I feel like we’re right on the verge of breaking through for a restrictor plate win. The Chevy’s have really been dominant at the superspeedways, but we feel like we’ve really made some strides with our Roush Racing Fords. We’ve got Smirnoff Ice on board with us this weekend, so we’ll be trying to get them to victory lane.”
Crew Chief Jimmy Fennig:
“We were happy with how we ran here in the spring, and we took what we learned back to the shop and applied it to the car we brought down here. It’s the same car we ran here last year that ran up front with the leaders all day. Kurt’s proven that he can be patient during this race to be up front at the end, we’re just going to try to go out and win this thing.”
Fast Facts
Kurt Busch moved up one spot to eighth in the NEXTEL Cup points following his third-place effort at Infineon Raceway last weekend, a career-best road course run. Busch is 272 points behind new leader Greg Biffle.
Busch has run nine races at Daytona with four top-five finishes, including fourth at Daytona one year ago, and second in the 2005 Daytona 500.
Busch has 10 top-10 finishes in 18 career restrictor-plate races, but has yet to win at either Daytona or Talladega.
Busch’s No. 97 Ford Taurus sports the black, silver and red of Smirnoff Ice for the second time this season for this weekend’s race at Daytona.
The Smirnoff Ice team brings chassis #61 to Daytona, the same car that finished fourth in this race one year ago. Busch’s second-place car from the Daytona 500 (#55) will serve as the back-up.
