Kurt Busch Advance
Martinsville Speedway
October 21st-23rd Nextel Cup Series
Subway 500, Sunday, Oct 23rd, 1:00PM
Kurt Busch
Team: No. 97 IRWIN Industrial Tools Ford Taurus
Crew Chief: Jimmy Fennig
Chassis: #48 (won at Richmond last month)
Busch on racing at Martinsville Speedway:
“We've got some hope because we ended up with an okay finish last week at Lowe’s. That's the first Chase race where you could say nothing went wrong for us, so it gives us optimism about the next few. We're 140 points out, and that’s still a long ways to go. We just still have to do our job and hope for some good fortune for our own team. We’re looking forward to this weekend at Martinsville because it’s a track we ran well at earlier this year before we were wrecked by the No. 24, and we’re bringing back the car we won with last month at Richmond, so we feel good about it.”
Crew Chief Jimmy Fennig on racing at Martinsville Speedway:
“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 a good run going in the spring here before we were wrecked, and Kurt has taken the car to victory lane here before. 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
Kurt Busch and the No. 97 Roush Racing team remain 10th in the “Chase” standings after a second-place finish at Lowe’s Motor Speedway last week, Busch’s career best at the track. Busch now trails co-leaders Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson by 142 points at the half-way point of the Chase.
The No. 97 brings the blue and yellow of IRWIN Industrial Tools to Martinsville on chassis #48, the same car that won at Richmond six weeks ago.
Busch has three top-10 and two top-five finishes at NASCAR’s shortest speedway, including a fifth-place finish one year ago. Busch led 33 laps in the spring event at Martinsville before Jeff Gordon clipped the rear of Busch’s Crown Royal Ford and took him out of contention with 50 laps remaining.
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).
