Talladega Superspeedway, Talladega, AL, April 30-May 1, 2005
NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series: Aaron’s 499, Sunday at 1:20 pm
Kurt Busch
Team: No. 97 IRWIN Industrial Tools/
Sharpie Ford Taurus
Crew Chief: Jimmy Fennig
Chassis: #55 (Finished second in this
year’s Daytona 500.)
Kurt Busch on racing at Talladega:
“If you're running in the top-five during the race, usually you're single file and out of the three-wide pack - that's something you try to position yourself for. If you're stuck in the middle of the pack, there's not much you can do. You don't want to get caught up in that big wreck, so you have to decide if you want to go forward or if you want to hang out in the back and wait for a pit stop to jumble up the field. Qualifying is important, but, if you qualify up front, you can get shuffled to the back quickly if you get into the wrong draft. We'll just see how it shakes up. We have a good car. It's the car we ran at the first Daytona and finished second with, so I'm excited to bring it back.”
Crew Chief Jimmy Fennig on racing at Talladega:
“Kurt’s done pretty well here over the years. We’re bringing the same car and back-up that we took to Daytona for the 500, and the primary did really well there. We got caught up in a wreck here last year. But Kurt has proven that he knows how to handle the IRWIN Ford at these superspeedways, so we feel pretty good about it.”
Fast Facts
With his first ’05 win at Phoenix last week, Kurt Busch moves to second in points (the same position he was in one year ago after eight events) and remains in the top 10 NEXTEL Cup Series competition for the 43rd consecutive race week (since Rockingham 2004), currently the longest streak on the circuit.
Busch’s No. 97 Ford Taurus sports the colors of IRWIN Industrial Tools at Talladega for the third time this season. The IRWIN car will run the next three events through the NEXTEL All-Star Challenge at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte on May 21st.
The IRWIN Industrial Tools Racing team brings chassis #55 to Talladega, the same car that finished second in this year’s Daytona 500.
Busch has competed in eight races at Talladega, posting five finishes of sixth or better. He has finished third twice (April ’01 and ’02), but suffered his worst finish and only DNF at the track one year ago (36th).
Though he has never visited victory lane at a restrictor-plate track, Busch finished in the top 10 in more than half his starts (nine top-10 finishes in 17 starts, including runner-up in this year’s Daytona 500).
