Kurt Busch Claims Outside Pole For Sunday's Bristol Battle
March 19, 2010
BRISTOL, Tenn. (March 19, 2010) – Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch will start Sunday’s Food City 500 here at Bristol Motor Speedway from the outside pole position after turning in an official qualifying lap of 15.492 seconds (123.587 mph).
“We’ll certainly take that and be super pleased with it,” said Busch, who had turned in the 11th-fastest lap in practice (15.579 seconds/123.166 mph). “We really struggled early in the practice here today and this is yet another testament to what Steve Addington has brought to our team. We were pretty way off with what we started practice with, but nobody panicked and Steve had everything under control. It was just like a situation of systematically sorting things out.
“Overall, we exceeded our expectations today,” Busch said of his third top-10 start of 2010 and his sixth in 19 races at Bristol Motor Speedway. “I didn’t think that we’d be sitting on the front row and stopping by the media center after our qualifying run but, hey, here we are. It shows that things are just going our way right now. Overall, we struggled today to find the right adjustments. Some of the front-end geometry that we unloaded with, we didn’t have time to undo it, unbolt it and completely revamp what Steve Addington wanted to throw at it. We improvised a little bit. I’m pleasantly surprised that we ran the lap time that we did. I’m even more surprised by the lap time that Joey Logano laid down. That’s a perfect lap in a COT around here. He did really good to hit that just right. Congrats to them for getting a pole.”
Young Logano continued to demonstrate that he will be a force to reckon with on the NASCAR Sprint Cup circuit as he picked up his first career series pole here this afternoon. After pacing the practice session leading up to qualifying, the 19-year-old driver clocked in with a fast lap of 15.396 seconds (124.630 mph).
Dave Blaney turned heads by claiming the third spot here this afternoon with his lap of 15.493 seconds (123.850 mph). Jimmie Johnson took the fourth starting spot with a lap of 15.497 seconds (123.817 mph) and Jeff Gordon grabbed the fifth spot with his 15.512-second (123.698-mph) lap.
Juan Montoya (15.521 seconds/123.626 mph) starts sixth, with Matt Kenseth (15.537/123.499), Carl Edwards (15.549/123.403), Marcos Ambrose (15.561/123.308) and David Reutimann (15.566/123.269) rounding out the top-10 starts. Penske Racing teammate Sam Hornish Jr. will start 22nd (15.647/122.631) while teammate Brad Keselowski (15.841/121.129) will go from the 36th starting spot here on Sunday.
Saturday’s morning practice here at Bristol Motor Speedway is scheduled from 11:00 a.m. till 11:45 a.m. and the final “happy hour” practice session is scheduled from 12:20 p.m. till 1:20 p.m. Sunday’s Food City 500 (500 laps, 266.5 miles) has a scheduled 1:00 p.m. EDT starting time. FOX-TV and PRN Radio will provide live coverage of all the action.
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TRANSCRIPT FROM 3/19/10 KURT BUSCH TOP-12 PRESS CONFERENCE:
YOU’RE COMING OFF AN IMPRESSIVE WIN TWO WEEKS AGO IN ATLANTA. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS COMING INTO BRISTOL? “It feels good to be back at the track, especially on an oval track. I spent my off week at a straight race track down at the Gator Nationals (Gainesville, Fla.). I had a lot of fun with our Dodge Challenger. To win at Atlanta on an off week the week before, you get to carry that all the way through for an extra week. It’s neat for the guys and our sponsors, for everybody to enjoy. Not only winning on an off-week, but winning early in the season does a lot for us to bump the whole atmosphere at Penske Racing. To know that we’ve done good things during the offseason and then of course, to quiet some of the critics knowing that we were going to be the only Dodge team out there, that felt great to get them to victory lane. And then our new promotion that Miller Lite and Dodge have this year…when I win, somebody wins a Dodge Challenger. So that’s really neat to see the two sponsors come together to try and distribute more beer and help sell more cars. In this case, giving away a car. It was really neat. I had a great off-weekend racing our car in the Super Gas division. I build a 1970 Dodge Challenger. It rain most of the weekend. I finally made a pass on Sunday morning. I qualified it at a 9.94 (second). In the division (Super Gas) you have to run a 9.90 index, so we were pretty close. The car didn’t take the adjustment that we made for the elimination rounds. We needed to add two pounds of boost and the car didn’t take the two pounds of boost (laughs). It was fun driving the car and thinking about something completely different and enjoying it as a car owner. Enjoying the Gator Nationals as a spectator with close friends and enjoying it with some Miller Lite’s as well. Back here in action at Bristol. We had a decent practice here today. I’ve won here five times, but none of that means anything. You have to go out there and know that you’re only as good as your last race here at Bristol. We finished top 10 here in the fall. We’re looking to bump that up and give our Miller Lite Dodge a shot at the pole today and see what we get in tomorrow’s practice for race trim.”
CAN YOU REFLECT ON STEVE ADDINGTON GETTING YOU TO VICTORY LANE? HAVE YOU TALKED TO YOUR BROTHER KYLE ABOUT YOU WINNING WITH HIS FORMER CREW CHIEF? “Getting Steve to victory lane was something special. You could see it in his face afterward and in his remarks in the media center at Atlanta. He didn’t want to rub it in or say anything directly, but in his mind and the way that he departed Gibbs Racing, and the way that he jumped over with us at Penske, where you’re moving from a program to another, you never know what to expect. You don’t know all the uncertainties and he trudged his way through all of that during this off season. To see him win before the 18 car won was big in his mind and I was happy to help deliver that. He’s a smart crew chief. He’s going to be in this garage for a long time and the way that we’ve started off, I hope this relationship can go as many years as it can. As far as Kyle, yeah, he texted me. He wanted to know if it was my setup from last year or Addington’s setup and I texted him back and said, ‘Honestly, it was a little of both.’”
DID THE WIN EASE SOME OF YOUR CONCERNS SURROUNDING THE MOMENTUM YOU HAD COMING OFF OF LAST SEASON? “Again, it gets back to that feeling of you have somebody new calling the shots. Steve was with one team and switched to another and so there’s always that uncertainty in the back of your mind at one time. You try and push all that aside and go and work each and every day the best that you can. Yeah, it’s great to win early on. Atlanta has been a good track to me recently. It’s a feel that you get out on the race track, yet Steve taught me some new things to bolt on to the car to use. That’s where the driver leans on the crew chief sometimes and the crew chief leans on the driver to do it. Again this weekend, Steve’s one of the winningest crew chiefs here at Bristol recently. It’s good to have him on my side.”
WHAT DID YOUR THINK OF THE TALLADEGA TEST? ARE YOU COMFORTABLE WITH THE PACKAGE THAT YOU ENDED UP WITH OR DO YOU EXPECT TO HAVE LOTS OF CHANGES? “I think NASCAR will choose the right gear, restrictor plate and spoiler size based off of our test. The last run that we made, maybe the spoiler was a little bit too small. The gear ratio is still a question. It will be interesting to see what they come back with (to Talladega). The restrictor plate size, I think that they’re happy as far as the speeds are concerned. We’ll see how it shakes out. No matter what they throw at us, you have to be able to adapt to whatever they give you. The team that does it the best usually winds up in victory lane. Overall, I was pleasantly happy with the results towards the end of the day. When we first started drafting practice, speeds were a bit excessive and the drag was up too much and the closing rate was too excessive. They calmed all that down and it seemed like a decent package at the end of the day.”
WHY DO YOU THINK THAT THIS TRACK IS SO STREAKY? “A package at Bristol seems to last a little longer than normal packages and that’s why you can get streaky here. There’s things that I remember from all the race winning cars that I’ve had (at Bristol) that you always put in your back pocket, that you always take with you that you want to incorporate in your current-day setup.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK THAT NASCAR SHOULD DO WITH ALL THESE WINGS THAT THEY HAVE LEFT? “Me and (Greg) Biffle raced each other this past Thanksgiving weekend over the off season. I’ve got an old Crown Vic, he’s got a Chevy Caprice and we go dirt racing on an eight-mile dirt track. I put a wing on for rear downforce. That’s about all they’re going to be good for is the aesthetic look. I don’t know if they’ll serve any purpose anymore.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’VE MATURED AS A DRIVER IN TERMS OF TRYING TO STAY AWAY FROM ON-TRACK CONTACT/SITUATIONS? “There’s always the chance to over-drive the car and then there’s the chance to drive it smart. Once this sport slows down, you’re able to absorb everything that’s going on around you. When you’re a new guy and you’re running into guys, it’s just because that you’re not keeping up with how quick you have to adjust to everything. And that calms down for everybody once you get more time behind the wheel. Me and Jimmy Spencer just had a clash on our personalities. In reference to guys like (Brad) Keselowski and his issues, he’s having an easier time driving the Nationwide cars right now and he’s struggling a little bit trying to find his niche in the Cup car. That will begin to develop for him and won’t be as raw and rough-edged as you see it right now because he’ll have a better time handling the car in the upcoming months.”
