Kurt Busch Starting Fifth In Sunday's LIFELOCK 400
June 12, 2009
BROOKLYN, Mich. (June 12, 2009) – Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch will start fifth in Sunday’s LifeLock 400 here at Michigan International Speedway after clocking in with an official qualifying lap of 38.308 seconds (187.950 mph) in today’s time trial session.
“It felt like a really fast and smooth lap and I honestly thought it’d be faster,” Busch said, after hitting the track 15th in the qualifying order and completing his qualifying effort. “I must have left something out there on the table. Maybe I was just too kind to it and didn’t charge the corners like I needed to.”
Most insiders agreed in their thinking that the track would cool off as the session progressed and it would be a distinct advantage to qualify late in the session. That certainly was not the case here this afternoon in the session that began at 3:10 p.m. EDT.
Brian Vickers, who was 12th out, turned in a lap of 38.073 seconds (189.110 mph) to claim the pole. Kyle Busch, out eighth in the order (and with a lap of 38.189 seconds/188.536 mph) took the second starting spot, with Jimmie Johnson (23rd out, with a 38.237 second/188.299 mph lap) grabbing third and David Reutimann (out 25th and turning in a lap of 38.270 seconds/188.137 mph) claiming the fourth starting position. Kurt Busch, A.J. Allmendinger, Juan Montoya, Kasey Kahne, Clint Bowyer and John Andretti rounded out the top-10 qualifiers.
“I don’t know what happened with the track here this afternoon, but it was really weird,” Busch said, after watching the remainder of qualifying from inside his team hauler. “We’d run a 19 (38.192-second/188.521 mph lap) in practice and that was third-fastest. When we got out there and ran a 30 (the 38.308-second/187.950 mph lap) on our lap, I really thought we were doomed. I figured we’d be lucky if it stood up for a top-15 spot. The track must not have cooled off and gotten faster like everyone thought it would.”
Busch’s Penske Racing teammates’ fates here today certainly back up his assumption. David Stremme was sixth-fastest in practice (38.353/187.730) and he wound up 26th (going out 33rd and turning in a lap of 38.651/186.282), while Sam Hornish Jr. was 11th on the practice speed chart (38.634/186.364) and wound up 33rd (out 36th in the order and clocking in with a lap of 38.754/185.787).
“There’s something you rarely see,” crew chief Pat Tryson said of the way the afternoon qualifying session progressed. “I thought our qualifying draw was definitely not going to work out our way. But, maybe with the rain earlier that they had here and then the sun we had today, it must have been a really temperamental surface out there. We didn’t check the thermometer to see how the temps varied and that’d be pretty interesting. The one thing I did notice is that the afternoon clouds didn’t move in here today as usual. It would be interesting to see how much the temperatures varied from the beginning to the end of the qualifying.
“We think we have a strong Miller Lite Dodge this weekend and look forward to focusing on nothing but race trim here in the two practices tomorrow,” Tryson said.
Saturday’s action here at MIS calls for practice from 11:00 a.m. till 11:45 a.m. (live on Speed-TV) and from 12:20 p.m. till 1:20 p.m. (live on Speed-TV). Sunday’s LifeLock 400 (200 laps, 400 miles) on the 2.0-mile track in Michigan’s scenic Irish Hills region is scheduled to get the green flag at approximately 2:00 p.m. Race No. 15 of 36 points-paying events on the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule will feature live coverage by TNT-TV and MRN Radio.
# # #
KURT BUSCH FRIDAY MEDIA CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS (Courtesy Dodge PR):
YOU’VE HAD SUCCESS AT MIS BEFORE, IT’S GOT TO FEEL GOOD TO RETURN AND RACE HERE? “This is definitely one of the marquee events on the Cup Series schedule just because of the fact that it’s very close to Detroit and all the things that are going on behind the scenes with the auto manufacturers. There’s quite a bit of bragging rights you get when you win here and that you get to carry on through to the next race or even next year. We’re always pushing hard to get Dodge in Victory Lane and it’s more special out here at Michigan International Speedway.
“For us, just a nice solid run is what we’re looking for. This race isn’t one that is in the Chase, both are summer races. They’re important. They’re fun. It’s going to be exciting with the double-file re-starts here at Michigan because of the fact that there are three, four lanes to choose from on restarts. It should be even more exciting. I think NASCAR was smart implementing the double-file restarts at Pocono and here at Michigan. Next weekend (at Sonoma) will be really tough, but we’ll see how things progress. Overall, I’d give it a good grade.”
CAN YOU EXPLAIN THE PROCESS OF GETTING YOUR CAR BETTER THROUGHOUT THE WEEKEND? “The biggest thing is to utilize practice time in the best way that you can. Without testing this year, when we show up at these race tracks, I feel the best thing for us to do is to knock out a few odds-and-ends items that you wouldn’t normally run at a specific race track like Michigan. We’ll try this or try that and then settle in to our normal changes that we would work on with our Miller Lite Dodge and try to dial it in on the high lane, low lane; there’s so many lanes to choose from here at this race track that they handle differently. You’re keeping an overall perspective on how to work through practice trying to finesse through big changes at the beginning, then the smaller ones at the end of practice and then fine-tune it. Then as the race progresses, the track rubbers in and the low line isn’t preferred, but you have to go down there to make some decent passes and make sure that your car runs on long runs because fuel mileage always pops up here in Michigan. Finally, with the double-file restarts, you’re always going to have to pay attention how quick your car takes off on fresh tires because you’re going to be stacked side-by-side with guys that you’re racing for position instead of having lapped cars down there.”
AFTER YOU WIN A RACE, DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE TO BE EVEN MORE OF A SALESMEN ONCE YOU GET OUT OF THE CAR? “It’s great to hold the position that we’re in. On the NASCAR side of things, we feel honored that Dodge is involved and we’re out there carrying a very large banner for them. And when we do win, we always hope that there is that cliché ‘Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday’. It’s that statement of the fact that Dodge is our supporter; we won with that car over and over and repetition is always the best way to get your message across. Yesterday, I had a golf outing with Mike Accavitti, he is now President and CEO of Dodge. He was the director of our racing program and so that makes us feel confident that they moved the racing director to CEO of the Dodge brand. That gives us comfort to know that we’re moving forward and doing the things behind the scenes that makes sure the racing program is true to selling cars.”
