KURT BUSCH LOOKS TO ROLL INTO RICHMOND WITH MOMENTUM
Miller Lite Dodge Driver Was Victorious In Last Race At RIR; Notes Strong Richmond History Of No. 2 Car

RICHMOND, Va. (May 2, 2006) - Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch is looking to carry large momentum back to the small track as the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series heads to Richmond International Raceway for Saturday night's Crown Royal 400.

"Talladega gave our Miller Lite Dodge team just the boost we were looking for heading into Richmond this weekend," said Busch, coming off his fourth consecutive top-10 finish at the mammoth Talladega Superspeedway in Monday's rain-delayed Aaron's 499. "After the problems we had during the last few races, we knew we needed a solid weekend at Talladega to help get our momentum rolling again and that's exactly what happened.

"We qualified fifth down there and that's the best I've ever qualified in restrictor-plate racing," said Busch, who has started all nine races in 2006 from a top-15 starting position, the only driver to do so. "We ran strong all day and had a shot at winning it. We bounced back from getting black-flagged for loose lugs and got us another top-10 finish down there. It was a great team effort.

"Just a couple of races back, we appeared to be headed on up the ladder toward the top 10 in points and then we got off base a little bit. We're back on the positive course we need to be on heading into Richmond.

"Richmond had never been a very kind track to me until we won there last fall," Busch said of his win in last September's Chevy Rock & Roll 400. "The place certainly had my respect because it had bitten us so many times before. It's a tough track to win on and it seemed like we'd had everything go wrong at one time or another to take our chances of winning away.

"We'd raced there nine times before and maybe as a rookie, I had just written the place off," said Busch, who had only one top-10 finish at Richmond prior to winning last September's race. "We'd had races where we ran out of gas while leading with only eight laps to go, races that we had lugnuts get stuck in the brake caliper while leading and even had fan belts come off the car while we were leading.

"It's definitely a tough race track, but it's also becoming one of my favorites," said Busch. "It was definitely on my hit list. We'd already won races at Bristol and Martinsville and by winning at Richmond, we've won races on all the short tracks.

"Rusty and the No. 2 team have always been known as one of the strongest teams at Richmond and with me finally being able to get a Richmond win there in the last race, we're looking to continue to live up to those high standards," Busch said, referring to Rusty Wallace, the former driver of the Miller Lite Dodge who retired from Cup racing at the end of the 2005 season. Wallace remains at the top of the RIR statistical chart, amassing an incredible career track record that boasted six wins, 22 top-five finishes, 29 top-10 finishes and three pole positions in 44 races.

"Rusty was known for his success at Richmond almost as much as he was known for dominating at Bristol like he did through all the years," Busch said. "We won at Bristol back in March and showed that we could live up to those great expectations. We're hoping we can get back to Richmond this weekend and keep all that momentum going."

This weekend's Crown Royal 400 action gets under way on Friday with practice from 11:15 a.m. till 1:15 p.m. Qualifying to determine all 43 starting spots for Saturday's race is set for Friday at 6:10 p.m. The cars will be impounded immediately after qualifying. Saturday's Crown Royal 400 (400 laps/300 miles) has a 7:30 p.m. EDT starting time and features live coverage by FX-TV and MRN Radio.

Notes of interest:

-- Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch and his Roy McCauley-led Penske Racing South team will be racing their PRS-103 Dodge Charger this weekend at Richmond. "When we tested at Richmond several weeks back, we had our (PRS) 102 and (PRS) 103 cars," McCauley explained. "The original plan was to race the 103 at Phoenix and come back to Richmond with the 102. Both cars were strong at Richmond, but Kurt liked the 103 just a tick better. We took the 103 out to Phoenix and kept open the possibility of racing the same car again at Richmond. That's exactly what we're going to do. We look at it like we had the Phoenix race as a test to get all the bugs worked out. We can take it to Richmond this weekend and, as Rusty Wallace would say, have us a strong little hot rod there for that race." The No. 103 chassis is the first new car out of the Penske fleet that was debuted by KB.

-- KB, Roy and the Miller Lite Team are participating in the testing this week at Lowe's Motor Speedway with their PRS-073 and PRS-081 Dodge Chargers. KB finished second in last fall's race at LMS for his best career finish to date in a points race on that track. His runner-up finish in the 2003 edition of the NEXTEL All-Star Challenge rates as his best finish to date in the "All Star" event historically held at LMS.

-- KB made it four consecutive top-10 finishes at Talladega with his seventh-place finish there in Monday's rain-delayed Aaron's 499. In 11 career races on the 2.66-mile Alabama track, his record now sports four top-five finishes and eight top-10s.

-- After nine races, KB back up to 16th in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup point standings, trailing 10th-place Dale Jarrett by 102 points.

-- KB has never been known for winning poles or for his great qualifying prowess. That certainly has changed this year, as he has started all nine races in 2006 from a top-15 starting position and is the only driver to do so. He already has a pole win this year, coming back in the second race of the season in California for his fourth career pole. After nine races, he has an impressive 7.3 average start.

-- KB's Richmond career record sports one win, one top-five finish and two top-10s in 10 races. He has a 20.9 average start and an 18.4 average finish. Last September's race not only produced his best career RIR finish to date, it also came from his best starting spot to date, a third.

-- KB has led a total of 313 laps of competition at Richmond. He has led laps there in five consecutive races, leading the most laps (five times for 185 laps) en route to his first career RIR win last September. He has completed 99.3 percent (3,967 of 3,993) of possible laps.

-- "Admit your errors before someone else exaggerates them." -Andrew V. Mason