Kurt Busch Starting 25th In Sunday's Pepsi 500 In California
October 9, 2009
FONTANA, Calif. (Oct. 9, 2009) – Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch will start 25th in Sunday’s Pepsi 500 at Auto Club Speedway after posting an official qualifying lap of 39.829 seconds (180.773 mph) in this afternoon’s single-car runs against the clock.
"We were pretty strong in practice and hoped to be even faster on our qualifying run,” said Busch, who turned in a lap of 39.602 seconds (181.809 mph). “While several of the guys up front picked up from practice, we went a couple of tenths slower. We just outsmarted ourselves out there, I guess you could say.
“We’ll have two practices here tomorrow to get our Miller Lite Dodge dialed in for Sunday’s race,” said Busch, currently fifth in Chase points, trailing leader Mark Martin by 91 points. “The great thing about this track is that it has a long pit road with plenty of room, so where we pit here on Sunday shouldn’t be a problem.”
Denny Hamlin, only 27th fastest in practice, picked up more than eight-tenths of a second from practice to qualifying and won the Coors Light Pole Award here this afternoon with his fast lap of 39.158 seconds (183.870 mph). David Reutimann will start second after turning in a lap of 39.321 seconds (193.108 mph). Greg Biffle (39.408 seconds/182.704 mph), Jimmie Johnson (39.423 seconds/182.635 mph) and Juan Pablo Montoya (39.492 seconds/182.315 mph) rounded out today’s top-five qualifiers.
Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer and Mark Martin rounded out the top-10 drivers. Among the other Chase drivers, Jeff Gordon will start 11th, with Carl Edwards 12th, Tony Stewart 21st, Kasey Kahne 26th, Brian Vickers 33rd and Ryan Newman 37th.
Busch’s Penske Racing teammate David Stremme qualified his No. 12 Penske Racing Dodge 15th by circling this 2.0-mile D-shaped oval in 39.703 seconds (181.346 mph). Penske teammate Sam Hornish Jr. will start 23rd here on Sunday after turning in a lap of 39.808 seconds (180.868 mph) in the No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge.
Saturday’s schedule here at the Auto Club Speedway features practice sessions from 10:30 a.m. till 11:15 a.m. and from 11:45 a.m. till 12:45 p.m. Sunday’s Pepsi 500 (250 Laps, 500 miles) has a scheduled 12:15 p.m. PDT starting time and features live coverage by ABC-TV and MRN Radio.
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KURT BUSCH TOP-12 OPEN INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT (Courtesy Dodge Motorsports):
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON RACING AT AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY THIS WEEKEND? “I always get excited for the week, the West Coast races. Being from just up the road in Las Vegas, to run there, here, Phoenix, Sonoma, it always feels like being home. I enjoy racing here at Auto Club Speedway. I’ve won a race and a few poles. I’m looking to build on our fifth-place finish that we had here last February. Last February seems like it was two-years ago instead of the six or eight months that it’s been. It’s amazing how far all the setups have come and how much our team has developed. Our team is in championship contention and we’ like to build off of that fifth-place and all the things that we’ve learned so far. We hope we can do that and lead some laps. We just have to build ourselves stronger at the end of the races because what we’ve been doing is starting off strong, hitting a plateau, and then we can’t improve towards the end. That’s where we feel like our weak spot is, but we think this track is a great place to get it started.”
CAN YOU RUN FULL THROTTLE AROUND THIS TRACK? “It’s a two-mile race track so there’s quite a bit of throttle and with fresh tires in qualifying trim, you have to let off quite a bit getting down into the corner. As soon as you can pick up the throttle and put it back down on the floor, that’s going to give you the shot down the straightaway that you need. It’s its own attitude. It’s its own element. At a lot of race tracks, you have to back out of the gas no matter how much banking there is because we’re driving a 3,600 pound stock car that’s way too heavy and under downforced.”
ANY MOVEMENT ON A NEW CREW CHIEF FOR THE 2 CAR NEXT YEAR? CAN YOU HIRE ONE AND BRING HIM IN TO WORK WITH PAT FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON? “That’s a tough scenario because we’re focused so much on 2009 and find ourselves fifth in points, only 91 points off the lead. Behind the scenes, yeah, we’re looking at crew chiefs. Tim Cindric, Mike Nelson and Roger Penske are interviewing guys. We have to find a crew chief for my car as well as Brad Keselowski’s Nationwide car. There have been some names that have been going in and out of the doors. There are guys internally that we’re looking at. It’s just tough because we find ourselves running for a championship and we can’t get too far off what we need to focus on.”
YOU HEAD TO TALLADEGA AT THE END OF THIS MONTH. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR RESTRICTOR PLATE PROGRAM AT PENSKE RACING? “It’s primarily about the car when you go to Talladega and Daytona. You have to have the speed and you have to have the restrictor plate power. The handling isn’t as important at Talladega as it is at Daytona. It’s full-tilt speed. I hope that our car is a little better than where we were in April. I would give it a “B” on a grading scale. We’re racing against some guys that are “A-pluses”. If we can stay out of the trouble, that’s like adding a grade level. You can get caught up in the big one with a fast car or you can miss the big one with a slow car. You hope that you have luck running on your side at Talladega. I see whoever is left after Talladega within 100 points of the lead or so or within one race of the points, will definitely have a shot at the championship going to Texas, Phoenix and Homestead.”
IS THERE ANY CHANGE IN MINDSET TOWARDS THE CHASE KNOWING THAT TALLADEGA IS LATER IN THE SCHEDULE? “I felt like with it earlier in the Chase, you had more time to gather up your points after that Talladega race. Now, you hope once you cleared Talladega that you still have a shot (at the championship) because you only have three races to go. That’s where there is that mental decision of having to survive Talladega either way, no matter what year it is in the Chase. Now you have less time after Talladega to gain points if you’re behind.”
HOW DO YOU ANTICIPATE DOUBLE-FILE RESTARTS AFFECTING THE RACE ON SUNDAY? “Double-file restarts have definitely changed the game in NASCAR. You’re not able to rely on lapped cars to use as picks later in the day. You have to be up on the wheel racing at the end and you’re side-by-side racing with the guys for position. It will definitely add excitement to Auto Club Speedway. I always thought this was a great, challenging track. It’s tough. F1 racing is very popular around the world and those guys run 10 seconds apart every lap. There’s not that excitement factor that people here in the states are thriving for. This race track, being it’s a little flatter than most race tracks and doesn’t have the banking, spreads cars out because you need that aerodynamic balance in the car. I think IROC used to race here; they might have even spread out a bit. Those cars definitely punched a big hole in the air and created an environment that the leader didn’t necessarily have the biggest advantage because he had the full wake of wind to push open where the other cars could follow. That’s the combination that we need to find in NASCAR…the way that those cars punched a hole in the air. They had plenty of down force to help them stick. That would be a great combination to find.”
