KURT BUSCH & TEAM READY FOR NEW CHAPTER IN NASCAR RACING
Miller Lite Dodge Driver Is Defending Champion Of Sunday’s Food City 500 On Bristol’s High Banks

BRISTOL, Tenn. (March 20, 2007) – Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch and his Roy McCauley-led Penske Racing Team enter this weekend’s history-making Food City 500 with high hopes of starting a new era of NASCAR racing on a positive note.

“That’s why we’re here at Greenville-Pickens today,” crew chief McCauley said on Tuesday morning as his team was shaking down its new Dodge Avenger in preparation for this weekend’s inaugural Car of Tomorrow (COT) race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Greenville-Pickens Speedway is a half-mile, slightly-banked asphalt oval near Greenville, S.C. “It’s a good place to shake our Dodge Avenger down one last time before we head to Bristol. We’re determined to be as prepared as possible for this weekend’s debut of the new model at Bristol.

“I’ve been quoted as saying that Kurt is so good at Bristol that he could win driving a dump truck,” McCauley said with a grin and a chuckle. “I know that may be a stretch, but it indicates how much faith I have in Kurt’s ability on a high-banked half-mile track. Simply put, he is the best there is at it. This weekend will be a tremendous challenge for every driver and team in our sport. It will be a race they’ll remember forever and we’re determined to be on our game this weekend. Kurt is the defending champion for Sunday’s race. We’ll be doing everything we can to help him continue to win the spring Bristol races.”

Busch’s Dodge Avenger COT model will not only be sporting the mandatory new rear wing and front-end “splitter,” the adjustable shelf-like device that sits underneath the front valence to adjust front downforce, it will also be noted by a new series of Penske Racing chassis numbers.

“In order to distinguish the new (COT) chassis cars that are built in our shop, they’ll all be designated as part of the ‘500 series,’” McCauley explained. “For instance, our Dodge Avenger for this weekend at Bristol is our ‘PSC-508’ (Penske Stock Car chassis number 508) and that number system will continue on into the future with the ‘509 car,’ the ‘510 car,’ and on and on.”

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Brandishing a career record of five wins and eight top-10 finishes in only 12 races, Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch carries statistics worthy of being considered the “Bristol King.” Only Jeff Gordon, also with five victories, has displayed equal Bristol prowess among active drivers. However, Gordon has won only once at B.M.S. since 1998. All of Busch’s top-five finishes have come in victories.

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Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch is quick to point to Bristol Motor Speedway as being his favorite track of them all, but his soft spot for B.M.S. certainly had to undertake a learning curve before coming to fruition.

“Oh, was there ever a learning curve -- a learning curve indeed,” Busch recalled with a chuckle “All you have to do is go back and look at my first Cup race at Bristol back in 2001.”

The official race report for the March 25, 2001, edition of the Food City 500 shows that Busch started 39th and finished 42nd. He completed only 118 of the 500 laps and exited the race due to an accident.

“It wasn’t pretty,” Busch said with a chuckle. “As a matter of fact, it was downright ugly. The first time I crashed that day, it was on my on. The second time I wrecked, I was in a big pileup. I guess you could say that the third time was the charm, in that we punctured the radiator in that crash.

“That put us out for good,” Busch continued. “They just kept on fixing it and putting me back out there to get track time. When we were finally done for the day, I looked up on the board and there were still about 400 laps of racing left. They didn’t have the tunnel down in the third turn at the time, so I was forced to sit there and watch all the others go at it for another three hours.

“I promised myself that day a situation like that would never happen again. It became a necessity in my mind to become a good racer at Bristol. You also have to consider the fact that they announced that very weekend that my car sponsor (Sharpie) was going to also start sponsoring the August race there.

“Seriously, I think that good racing luck has had a little to do with it, too,” offered Busch, who went on to claim his first career win the following spring at Bristol and then posted three consecutive Bristol wins in 2003-2004. “I was able to develop a real positive attitude about racing at Bristol and I look forward to every Bristol race week.

“I looked at guys like Darrell (Waltrip) and Rusty (Wallace) and saw just how much they genuinely enjoyed each and every time the circuit raced at Bristol,” said Busch. “Having a positive attitude about racing there is so important at Bristol and we always have that going for us when we get there.

“As far as the strategy behind my success, I learned from the very first race that you have to be around at the finish to do well at Bristol. It really is a situation of surviving the first 400 laps – keeping the fenders on the thing and staying out of the wall. Then, if you’re in good shape after four-fifths of the race, it’s time to really get down to business during the final 100 laps.”

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Busch’s win in the 2006 Food City 500 certainly didn’t come easy. Busch and his Roy McCauley-led Miller Lite Dodge team had plenty of obstacles to overcome.

Here is a race “recap” of the March 28 Food City 500:

“It was a monumental win, to say the least,” Busch said of his 15th career Cup win and fifth at Bristol. “Yes, it was the first win for us in the Miller Lite Dodge – my first win for Penske Racing. But, the way we won it will always stand out in my mind. It’s unbelievable when you think of overcoming those obstacles at Bristol to take that first win.

"We started off the race where I wasn't able to communicate with the team,” explained Busch. “I could hear them, but they couldn’t hear anything I said. That didn’t get our team down like it could have most teams at a place like Bristol.

“We went through a quick little practice run and devised a signal system where if I touched the A pillar the car was a little tight. If I touched the door it was a little loose. We ran with that all the way up to the red flag. Then during the red flag, that's when I was able to get the second radio out and talk into the microphone, and that was the only way they could hear me. We had a rough day with that.

“If that wasn’t bad enough, we got a flat tire early in the day,” Busch said of the flat right rear tire he encountered on Lap 61 after taking the lead from Greg Biffle, who had experienced a similar setback. “That put us one lap down. We came down pit road under the green and Roy (McCauley, crew chief) saw that the lefts were okay. He made the call to go with rights only and that saved us from going two laps down. We were able to race our way back and get the Lucky Dog and work our way through the pack, sometimes on the high side, sometimes on the low side.”

It was only 11 laps after Busch’s tire problems that the second yellow flag of the race flew, this caution for a multi-car crash in Turn 1. Busch was all the way back in the 38th spot, running one lap down to leader Tony Stewart, for the Lap 78 restart.

Busch was patient in getting around the other lapped cars and into the “Lucky Dog” spot during the next 10 laps, getting great help from his spotter and coaching from Roger Penske’s “Lieutenant” Walt Czarnecki.

When another multi-car crash occurred in Turn 4 brought out the third caution period of the race, Busch got the free pass to rejoin the lead lap racers.

Busch, McCauley and crew continuously massage their Dodge into top competitive form – using their hand signal system and without the driver being able to communicate via a working two-way radio. It was a true spectacle in itself to witness.

Busch was back up to 18th when Jeff Burton’s spin on Lap 159 brought out the sixth caution period of the race and he’d cracked the top 15 when another massive pileup forced red flag conditions on Lap 193.

Under the red, Busch was able to pull the backup radio from its harness and communicate directly through its face speaker. The team then pinpointed the radio problem being in Busch’s helmet microphone. Busch and crew were able to remedy the situation to where they had limited, yet workable, two-way radio communication for the remainder of the race.

With several cars pitting prior to the Lap 200 restart, Busch was all the way back up to 10th when the green flag flew once again. Busch made steady progress through the field after that. He was ninth after a caution on Lap 206 for debris and eighth on a Lap 223 restart after another yellow flag caused by debris on the track.

When rookie Brent Sherman spun on the backstretch on Lap 249 to bring out the ninth yellow of the race, all the leaders hit pit road. A 12.824-second pit stop had Busch and the Miller Lite Dodge back up to third.

Busch was up to second, behind leader Stewart, on the Lap 294 restart after the 11th caution period of the day. He scooted around Stewart to reclaim the lead on Lap 386 and held the point until the 13th yellow of the day flew on Lap 407 when Kevin Lepage stalled against the Turn 4 wall.

Even though McCauley’s lightning-fast Miller Lite Dodge team gave Busch a 12.692-second stop, Matt Kenseth’s crew got him out first. Busch was second, a hard-charging Kevin Harvick was third, Jeff Gordon fourth and Stewart fifth.

Through three additional cautions, Busch threatened to reclaim the lead from ex-teammate Kenseth. He finally got his opportunity to pass Kenseth with only four laps remaining in the race.

“The last restart, Matt got a great restart,” Busch explained of the final portion of the 500-lap battle. “It looked like I was sleeping. I chased him down lap after lap. We were out there for about a hundred laps. We wore our tires out with running too hard of a pace. When he got the lapped cars they wouldn’t yield to him, yet he couldn’t pass them because he wore out his tires. I was in the same boat.

“When I caught up to him he was real tight in the center of one and two,” Busch said of the closing laps of the race. “He got loose. I bumped into him a little bit and that was our window to go for the lead. It was a big victory for us. The Bristol atmosphere is all about bumping and grinding. I’ve seen Jeff Gordon win many races that way, and take a few races away from Rusty for that matter.

Busch had a special cell phone call while celebrating his big win in Victory Lane – from Rusty Wallace – former driver of the Miller Lite Dodge and a true legend in this sport. He couldn’t wait to tell his friend and driving champion-now-turned-broadcaster what he had done to pay tribute.

“To have Rusty call me in Victory Lane, it’s very emotional to drive his car and to drive for Roger Penske and Miller Lite and Dodge and all of our great sponsors,” an emotional Busch explained. “For him to congratulate us -- that one was for the team. That’s what he had said. When I mentioned for him it’s a tradition and he said ‘of course.’ And I said, ‘I’m going to name this car Rusty.’ You could almost see he had a tear in his eye.”

Busch’s victory came at an official 0.179-second advantage over runner-up Harvick. Kenseth finished third, with Carl Edwards fourth and Bobby Labonte fifth. Mark Martin, Biffle, Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne rounded out the top 10 finishers.

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This weekend’s Bristol action kicks off with Friday practice from 10:30 a.m. till 12:00 noon. Friday’s 3:45 p.m. qualifying session will determine the entire starting field for Sunday’s race. Saturday’s action features morning practice from 10:00 a.m. till 10:50 a.m. and “Happy Hour” practice from 12:50 p.m. till 1:50 p.m. Sunday’s Food City 500 has a 2:00 p.m. EDT start with FOX-TV and PRN Radio featuring live coverage beginning 30 minutes earlier.

Notes of interest:

--Kurt, Roy and Miller Lite Team are scheduled to test today (Tuesday, 3/20/07) at Greenville-Pickens Speedway, the half-mile, slightly-banked asphalt oval near Greenville, S.C. “It’s a good place to shake our Dodge Avenger down one last time before we head to Bristol,” Roy said of the historical facility that has hosted racing events since July 4, 1946. “We’re determined to be as prepared as possible for this weekend’s debut of the new model at Bristol.

--Kurt will utilize part of his lunch break during today’s testing at Greenville-Pickens to be the special featured guest on the Dodge Motorsports Media Teleconference.

--Kurt set to be a special featured guest on tomorrow’s (Wednesday, 3/21/07) “Sirius Speedway,” the national live radio show that airs on Sirius Satellite Radio’s NASCAR Channel 128. Produced by MRN, the show is hosted by longtime MRN on-air talent Dave Moody and it originates from the MRN studios located at DAYTONA USA. Kurt is set to go on at 4:00 p.m. EDT.

--Kurt will be the special featured guest on Friday night’s edition of “Trackside” on SPEED TV. Kurt will join hosts Steve Byrnes, Larry McReynolds Jeff Hammond and Elliott Sadler on Friday night as they discuss the NASCAR scene at Bristol, Tenn. This lively program always produces an animated, in-depth discussion of all the action surrounding the weekend’s racing activity. Friday’s show will be broadcasted live at 7:00 p.m. EDT, with the show airing again on Friday at 10:00 p.m. and Saturday at 1:00 a.m. EDT.

--The No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge “Over-the-Wall Gang” turned in their fastest pit stop of the season at Atlanta on Sunday. During the fourth caution period of the race, caused by a multi-car crash on Lap 230, Kurt’s “Gang” performed a four-tire-and-fuel service job in an unbelievable 11.656 seconds. The 2007 No. 2 “Gang” is made up of tire-changers Jay Hackney and Kevin Hebert; tire-carriers Dave Littau and Larry Robinette, jack man Ray Gallahan; gas man Chris Williams and gas catch man Steve Williams. Dustin Coonfield serves as the windshield man and provides water for the driver. Car chief Corey Tucker serves as the second gas man and is backed up by Daniel Keaton and Bill “Stump” Lewis.

--Kurt’s Dodge Avenger COT model he’ll debut this weekend at Bristol will not only be sporting the mandatory new rear wing and front-end “splitter,” it will also be noted by a new series of Penske Racing chassis numbers. “In order to distinguish the new (COT) chassis cars that are built in our shop, they’ll all be designated as part of the ‘500 series,’” Roy explained. “For instance, our Dodge Avenger for this weekend at Bristol is our ‘PSC-508’ (Penske Stock Car chassis number 508) and that number system will continue on into the future with the ‘509 car,’ the ‘510 car,’ and on and on.”

--Count Kurt as a true believer in the abilities of NASCAR NEXTEL Cup “rookie” driver Juan Pablo Montoya. Kurt was running in the seventh spot when a round of green-flag pit stops started on Lap 190. After pitting on Lap 193, he found himself running in sixth, just in front of Montoya, when the stops cycled around on Lap 196. Montoya made a clean pass on Lap 199 and was battling Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards and Dale Earnhardt Jr. for fifth during the ensuing laps. When the third caution flag of the race fell on Lap 222 for Scott Rigg’s blown engine, Kurt was quick to get on his radio and say, “forget any doubt I may have had about Montoya. From what I just saw from back here during the last 20 laps, he’s every bit as good as they say he is. He definitely deserves to be here running in Cup, if that’s what he wants to do…”

--Brandishing a career record of five wins and eight top-10 finishes in only 12 races, Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt carries statistics worthy of being considered the “Bristol King.” Only Jeff Gordon, also with five victories, has displayed equal Bristol prowess among active drivers. However, Gordon has won only once at B.M.S. since 1998. It is hard to believe that all of Kurt’s five top-five finishes at Bristol have been wins.

--Things weren’t always so great for Kurt at Bristol. He recalls his first Cup race there back in 2001: “It wasn’t pretty,” Kurt said with a laugh. “As a matter of fact, it was downright ugly. The first time I crashed that day, it was on my on. The second time I wrecked, I was in a big pileup. I guess you could say that the third time was the charm, in that we punctured the radiator in that crash. That put us out for good. They just kept on fixing it and putting me back out there to get track time. When we were finally done for the day, I looked up on the board and there were still about 400 laps of racing left. They didn’t have the tunnel down in the third turn at the time, so I was forced to sit there and watch all the others go at it for another three hours.”

--Kurt’s most memorable wins…his favorite…and his “coolest” have all come at Bristol…Of all 15 of Busch’s career NASCAR NEXTEL Cup victories entering this weekend’s Food City 500, the 2004 series champ points to three of his Bristol wins as most memorable, among his favorite…and “coolest.” “Yeah, without a doubt, that first win at Bristol back in 2002 will always be special,” Kurt said. “You only have one first win and that’s mine there. It was a great feeling that I’ll always treasure. The same goes for my first win for Penske Racing at Bristol back in the spring. But, that win in the night race at Bristol in 2003 probably rates as my biggest career win to date. At least it does in my eyes. It is spectacular to win at Bristol at night. There’s just so much electricity and excitement in the air. The fact that we won the Sharpie race in the Sharpie car added to the importance and significance of that win. It was probably my favorite and coolest win so far.”

--Hard to forget Kurt’s now-famous victory celebration after winning last year’s Food City 500. The weather had been extremely cold all weekend. Qualifying was cancelled due to adverse weather. It was actually spitting snow during Sunday’s race. As a treat to the fans, Kurt celebrated with his first performance of “snow angels,” along with burnouts and a “Polish Victory Lap.” That celebratory lap was made famous by the late Alan Kulwicki, who was the 1992 Cup series champion. Kulwicki was killed, along with three others, in a plane crash while attempting to land at the local airport prior to the spring race of 1993. Rusty Wallace won that race and performed the backwards victory lap in honor of his fallen friend. He continued to do the special tribute after every race win until he hung up his Cup racing helmet at the end of the 2005 season. Kurt honored Wallace after winning last year’s Food City 500 by naming his winning car “Rusty” during the Victory Lane celebration.

--Kurt posted his first career short-track pole position win in qualifying for last August’s Sharpie 500 at Bristol. “Guess you could say we have a trifecta now for the year,” Kurt said after winning the Bristol pole with his 124.906 mph/15.362 second lap. “We’ve won poles on the mile-and-a-half intermediate tracks, the road courses and now the short tracks this year. It’s just a big tribute to the hard work everybody at Penske Racing puts into it and a credit is due to all the guys on our Miller Lite Dodge Team.”

--Kurt will again be one of the five featured drivers in this weekend’s exciting new DirecTV Hot Pass program. The program will feature Kurt and the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge during Sunday’s race only and will have both a video (on board camera and track cameras) and audio element (team radio communications) to the program. Real-time telemetry is also scheduled to be part of this offering. There will be a dedicated Direct TV channel for this Sunday’s race for the No. 2 car. For additional information, log on to their site at http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/global/contentPage.jsp?assetId=P3980112

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