KURT BUSCH HAS GROWN MUCH SINCE 2005 FALL NEW HAMPSHIRE RACE
Miller Lite Dodge Driver Hoping His Team Gets Back On Track In Sunday’s Sylvania 500 At N.H.I.S.

LOUDON, N.H. (Sept. 12, 2006) – Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch has come a long way since September 18, 2005. That was the date of last year’s Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway, a race in which Busch now admits he made a “spectacle” of himself.

In that race, the first Chase event last year, Busch started 12th and was headed toward the front from the drop of the green flag. Scott Riggs had started fifth and it took Busch only two laps to get up to the bumper of Riggs’ No. 10 Chevrolet. On just the third lap of the race, Busch got an outside run on Riggs entering the first turn of the 1.058-mile oval. Riggs’ car got loose and swung wide, clipping Busch and sending him nose-first into the outside wall.

After getting his mangled car back to the garage and parking it, Busch climbed out and briskly made his way down the pedestrian side of pit road to Riggs’ pit. A multitude of reporters, cameramen and live TV and radio audiences followed Busch’s every move. He climbed the ladder on the No. 10 team pit box and had a brief conversation with crew chief Rodney Childers. He then marched back to his team hauler in the garage area, with the massive throng of media members still in tow. He later returned to the race to finish 35th, completing 233 of the 300 laps.

“I just wanted to make sure that the crew chief knew that he’d put an extremely loose race car under his driver and had caused a crash that likely ended my chances to win the Chase,” Busch said with a slight chuckle as he recently recalled the incident. “I guess I made a pretty big spectacle of myself there that day.”

So, what would happen if Busch was faced with the exact scenario again today?

“Oh, that would never happen today, I guarantee you that,” said Busch, the 28-year-old Las Vegas native who claimed the 2004 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series title. “I’m in a situation now where there’s way too much respect for everybody involved for something like that to happen. There’s no way I would do anything that could possibly embarrass Roger (Penske, team owner) and all my friends at Miller (Brewing, sponsor) and with all the other sponsors.

“Besides, I have a support crew behind me now that would prevent anything like that ever occurring, maybe even tackling me if they had to,” Busch continued with a snigger. “Seriously, I’ve learned that there’s a right way to handle things like that. That was the old Kurt Busch, not the calmer married guy here driving the Miller Lite Dodge for Roger Penske.”

Yes, it’s true that Busch’s on-track performance was much better at this time last season and he had the statistics to back it up. He had made the Chase for the second year in a row. He was 10th in the points and had won three races.

“But, that was pretty much the beginning of the end for me during the 2005 season,” Busch said as he looked back on last year’s Sylvania 500. “We just kinda’ went downhill from there on.

“It’s better to be with this team that’s on its way up,” Busch said of his Roy McCauley-led Penske Racing South unit, which was assembled just last December to work with Busch during his initial season driving for Penske Racing. “We’ve accomplished a lot already and our future is so promising.

“The way we’ve been running lately has been frustrating and that’s easy to understand,” said Busch, who hasn’t finished in the top 10 since the July 23rd race at Pocono, but has claimed three pole positions during that period to lead the battle for the most poles this season. “Roger has been so supportive and so have all our sponsors and everyone involved. This is a long-term project and we’re in it for the long haul.”

After two days of testing their “Car of Tomorrow” at the Milwaukee Mile, Busch and crew head back to New Hampshire hoping to get their season turned around.”

“We have 10 races remaining to get back on track and hopefully get back to Victory Lane,” said Busch, whose career record at N.H.I.S. boasts two wins, four top-five finishes and five top 10s in 11 races. He also won a Craftsman Truck Series race there in 2000.

This weekend’s schedule at New Hampshire calls for Cup practice on Friday from 11:35 a.m. till 1:05 p.m. Cup qualifying is scheduled for 3:10 p.m. (live on Speed Channel). Saturday’s schedule features practice sessions from 8:30 a.m. till 9:20 a.m. and from 11:05 till 11:50 a.m. Sunday’s Sylvania 300 has a scheduled 1:30 p.m. EDT starting time and features live coverage by TNT-TV and MRN Radio.

Notes of interest:

--Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch spent Monday and Tuesday at the Milwaukee Mile testing Penske Racing South’s new “Car of Tomorrow” and fighting against foul weather in the process. The new COT is scheduled to race for the first time at Bristol Motor Speedway on March 25, 2007.

--KB and his Roy McCauley-led Penske South team will be racing their PRS-102 Miller Lite Dodge Charger in this weekend’s Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway.

The car was tested at Richmond back in the spring, but hasn’t been raced so far this season.

--KB’s career record on the 1.058-mile Loudon, N.H., oval boasts two wins, four top-five finishes and five top 10s in 11 races. He swept the races there in 2004 en route to the NEXTEL Cup championship. He has a 17.4 average start and is looking for his first pole on the track. He has a 16.0 average finish. He also won a Craftsman Truck Series race there in 2000.

--KB was knocked out of the competition early during the 2005 edition of the Sylvania 300.

In that race, the first Chase event last year, Busch started 12th and was headed toward the front from the drop of the green flag. Scott Riggs had started fifth and it took Busch only two laps to get up to the bumper of Riggs’ No. 10 Chevrolet. On just the third lap of the race, Busch got an outside run on Riggs entering the first turn of the 1.058-mile oval. Riggs’ car got loose and swung wide, clipping Busch and sending him nose-first into the outside wall.

After getting his mangled car back to the garage and parking it, Busch climbed out and briskly made his way down the pedestrian side of pit road to Riggs’ pit. A multitude of reporters, cameramen and live TV and radio audiences followed Busch’s every move. He climbed the ladder on the No. 10 team pit box and had a brief conversation with crew chief Rodney Childers. He then marched back to his team hauler in the garage area, with the massive throng of media members still in tow. He later returned to the race to finish 35th, completing 233 of the 300 laps.

“I guess I made a pretty big spectacle of myself there that day,” Busch recalled.

-- The 2005 Sylvania 300 was a wild one, indeed. The Busch/Riggs incident last year brought out the first caution on only the fourth lap of the race and set the tone for what would be a wild afternoon at N.H.I.S. When the race finally concluded, there had been 10 different cautions for 60 laps. The wild battle even saw incidents occur simultaneously in two different areas on the track that produced the ninth yellow flag of the race. While Mike Bliss and Joe Nemechek got into each other in Turn 1 on Lap 191, Michael Waltrip punted Robby Gordon down the back straightaway. Gordon hit the outside wall hard, but attempted to back his car into Waltrip, almost collecting an innocent Tony Stewart. An angry Gordon exited his battered Chevy and launched his helmet at Waltrip’s No. 15 car as he passed the crash site the next time around.

--Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch continues to reinforce his new nickname of “Professor Friday” as his five pole positions lead all drivers entering New Hampshire. Kasey Kahne and Jeff Burton have four each.

--Not only has Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch proved himself a worthy candidate for the season-long battle for the most pole positions, he continues to display the top qualifying consistency. KB’s 8.500 average start is by far the best in the sport. Jeff Gordon is the only other driver with an average start of 10th or better (9.731), but he has gone 46 straight races without winning a pole. KB has amassed 18 top-10 starts, more than any other driver. He has started no worse than 20th in any race.

--How does KB stack up against Kasey Kahne and Jeff Burton, the drivers with four poles and his closest rivals for most poles this season? Kahne has a 12.381 average start, with 16 top-10 starts, but he has started outside the top 20 in seven races. Burton has a 12.461 average start, with 13 top-10 starts. He has started outside the top 20 in four races.

--“Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.” –Alfred Hitchcock