Martinsville Speedway, April 9-10, 2005
NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series:
Advance Auto Parts 500, Sunday at 1:20 pm (ET)
Kurt Busch
Team: No. 97 IRWIN Industrial Tools/Sharpie/Crown Royal Ford Taurus
Crew Chief: Jimmy Fennig
Chassis: #56 (finished 11th at Martinsville in the spring of 2004)
Kurt Busch on racing at Martinsville:
“This is the first time we’ve ever had two short tracks back-to-back on the schedule, so it’s going to be different. You don’t take the same car to Martinsville that you race at Bristol, but the races are still tough on the body, literally, to run short tracks back to back. It will definitely be an interesting race with the points, with some guys on the outside looking in. The aggressiveness that people didn’t use at Bristol is likely to come out at Martinsville. But we hope to rebound with a solid run and a top five in the Crown Royal car.”
Crew Chief Jimmy Fennig on racing at Martinsville:
“With those long straights and tight corners, Martinsville is a tough track on the brakes and the motors. It really puts a lot of it on the driver too because it is so mentally exhausting to go run around for 500 laps on those tight turns. We had some tough finishes here last year, but in 2002 we ran well here. Kurt has taken the car to victory lane here before, and we all know he knows how to run short tracks, so we’ll see if he can keep the fenders clean and get a good finish.”
Fast Facts:
With his 35th place finish at Bristol, Kurt Busch remains in the top 10 NEXTEL Cup Series competition for the 40th consecutive race week, currently the second-longest streak behind Tony Stewart.
Busch’s No. 97 Ford Taurus sports the colors of Crown Royal for the second of six times this season at Martinsville. Busch finished sixth in the Crown Royal Ford in the pre-season Shootout at Daytona.
The No. 97 Crown Royal team brings chassis #48 to Martinsville, the same chassis that finished fifth at Martinsville in the fall of 2004 and led 94 laps at Richmond in the last event there. Chassis #56 (finished 11th at Martinsville in the spring of 2004) will serve as the back-up.
Busch picked up his second career victory at Martinsville in the Old Dominion 500 on October 20, 2002 from the 36th starting position, the farthest back a race winner has started at Martinsville by 12 positions (Lee Petty’s win on May 3, 1959 from the 24th spot was the previous record).
