Kurt Busch Starting Outside Pole In Sunday's Coca-Cola 600
May 27, 2010
CONCORD, N.C. (May 27, 2010) – Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch will start Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 here at Charlotte Motor Speedway from the outside pole after turning in a lap of 28.832 seconds (187.292 mph) in his new “Vortex Bottle” version of the “Blue Deuce” Penske Racing entry tonight.
“Penske Racing won the pole at Indy last weekend and we really wanted to win the team another pole here at Charlotte tonight,” said Busch, who turned in the 11th-fastest lap (29.626 seconds/182.272 mph) in the 90-minute practice session during the hottest part of the day. “(Pole-winner Ryan) Newman is a great qualifier. Congratulations to him. When we were teammates (at Penske Racing), we always pushed each other hard on qualifying days. In 2007, I had a better car than him in practice and he still beat me, got the pole and I was outside pole. Newman is just that good in qualifying. Anytime that you're second to him when he has the pole, you know that you've had a great qualifying lap. It’s a great effort to start the 600 outside pole.
“We’ll have a great pit box selection and that will help us all night long,” said Busch, who won the exciting NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race here at CMS last Saturday night. “It’s funny, you lose by four-hundredths sometimes and it stings. You lose by two-tenths and it doesn’t matter. With Roger on the pole up at Indy, I was trying to deliver him a pole down here in Charlotte. We’re close. We’re front row and we’ll go from there.”
Newman (official lap of 28.793 seconds/187.546 mph) picked up his 46th pole in 309 career races tonight. It was his ninth pole in 19 races here at CMS. Martin Truex Jr. (28.848 seconds/187.188 mph) claimed the third starting spot, with Kasey Kashne (28.851/187.169) fourth and Jimmie Johnson (28.881/186.974) fifth. David Reutimann, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, and Clint Bowyer rounded out tonight’s top-10 qualifiers.
Penske Racing teammate Sam Hornish Jr. qualified 14th with a lap of 29.117 seconds (185.459 mph), while teammate Brad Kewselowski clocked in with the 37th-fastest lap of the session (29.573 seconds/182.599 mph), but will likely go to a backup car and start from the rear of the field here on Sunday after crashing into the fourth-turn wall on his second lap under the clock.
“It was definitely a great effort from our team to be able to balance out that setup from last Saturday night into a qualifying package,” Busch said of his Steve Addington-led team’s ability to transfer what they learned with their “PRS-702” chassis raced here last Saturday night to their brand new “PRS-728” they are racing here this weekend. “It was a little bit of a head scratcher, but we were able to pull through and get it pretty close. I have the utmost confidence in the car to get it done. We hope that we can be number eight in drivers that won both the All-Star Race and the 600."
There is no action scheduled here at CMS on Friday. Saturday’s schedule calls for practice from 11:30 a.m. till 12:15 p.m. (live on Speed-TV) and from 12:50 p.m. till 1:50 p.m. (live on Speed-TV). Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 (400 laps, 600 miles) on the 1.5-mile quad-oval track is scheduled to get the green flag just after 6:00 p.m. Race No. 13 of 36 points-paying events on the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule will feature live coverage by FOX-TV and PRN Radio beginning at 5:00 p.m. EDT.
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HIGHLIGHTS FROM FRIDAY’S KURT BUSCH TOP-12 POINTS PRESS CONFERENCE
(Courtesy of Dodge Motorsports PR)
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE SPRINT ALL-STAR WIN, THE COCA-COLA 600 THIS WEEKEND AND COMING BACK TO CHARLOTTE? “I feel like it has been a great week with the celebration of the All-Star win and how everybody at Miller is very excited especially with our promotion around the vortex bottle and just the team. We put together a team party this week at the shop on Wednesday afternoon. We closed the shop down about a half hour early and had pizza and beer for all the guys. And the people were hanging out afterwards, having a couple more beers and enjoying each other, talking to each other and feeling that comrade. It was really exciting for me to see that happen. The trophy was there. Everybody was taking pictures with it and touching it. It just makes it an exciting week. Today when I drove into the race track, I said ‘all right, this is 600 weekend and we need to shift gears’. So here we are. We have the same setup that we won the race with. We’re excited about what it has given us so far, what it yielded in the hot daytime versus what it had in the cool conditions the other night. So, we’ll just go off that baseline. In years past here at the 600, I struggled transitioning from day to night. I feel like I’ve always had a better car in the daytime and I struggled at night. So this time around, we’d be foolish if we changed the setup too much from that All-Star race and base the setup around that. If we struggle in the daytime, we know that we can make it to the final portion of the race, hopefully, and race them hard then.”
PENSKE RACING HAS NEVER WON A POINT’S RACE AT CHARLOTTE. WHAT WOULD IT MEAN FOR YOU GUYS TO WIN THE 600 AND THE INDY TEAM TO WIN THE 500? “It would be special. It was a great week for Roger. On Saturday, he wins the Indy 500 pole again and we were able to bring it home on Saturday night. To see his emotions, that smile on his face. He deserves it. He’s worked that hard. Those Indy car guys, it’s amazing. He’s won Indy 14 times and on the stock car side, we were able to push (Ryan Newman) to get one Daytona 500 victory. It’s funny how many wins he has on Memorial Day weekend up in Indy versus what he doesn’t have down here in Charlotte. Hopefully, it comes this weekend. It would be pretty special for us to do that. He’s got the best opportunity to do it. He’s got the best odds to do it this weekend with three cars up there and three cars down here.”
WHAT’S YOUR THINKING ON THE PROTOCOL ON THE DENNY HAMLIN-KYLE BUSCH INCIDENT LAST WEEKEND DURING THE ALL-STAR RACE? “When teammates start to feud, it doesn’t do anything good for the team internally and it usually starts with something on track. Just like this season, we’ve had Jeff Gordon really upset with Jimmie Johnson after Talladega. On the outside, you always hope when you see things like that, top drivers feuding like that, it breaks it down a little bit and it might soften it up to where they don’t run as competitive at the track. That’s what you have to be careful of. In the long run, you know that these guys are going to work it out, the guys at Hendrick, Gibbs. It might even make them stronger with one of them admitting fault and putting it behind them. I feel that Kyle had a good run to the outside of Hamlin, but at this type of race, anyone is going to put on a block. You have to be ready for it. Ultimately, my little brother made a mistake, got up in the fence. He’s been running these All-Star races for a few years now, running at a 1000 percent pace every year. It doesn’t take a 1000 percent pace to win it.”
DOES THE WIN LAST WEEKEND IN THE ALL-STAR RACE MAKE YOU A CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDER? DOES THE MICHIGAN RACE LAST AUGUST PROPEL YOUR CHANCES FOR THE JUNE RACE THIS YEAR? “I feel like our (All-Star) win was an exclamation point so far in our year, but it’s not going to guarantee that it’s going to hoist us right in the championship battle. We have to continue to find new setups like we did the other night and make our cars better. We had great horsepower the other night and that’s a true testament to our engine program. That’s an engine that you can run for 100 laps. It’s not something that you can put together for a 500-mile race or 600-mile race. We’ll continue to work hard. We were fourth in points this time last year. We’re ninth now. It’s because RCR is running strong and a couple of Roush cars that are in a mix. That’s four cars, plus the other five and that makes us ninth in points. We’re doing about the same as last year. We’re just going to have to step it up another notch if we’re going to be a championship team.
At Michigan Speedway, it’s a great track because it’s in the backyard of the automotive manufactures. There are always big bragging rights when you win. Year ago when I won at Michigan (driving a Ford), I got a letter from Edsel Ford. Those types of moments are special and everyone pushes hard at MIS to win for their brand. Does it help propel you in the second race in August to help you in the Chase? I’ve always thought of Michigan as being one of those summer race tracks. We race there in June, race there in August and it’s not part of the Chase at all. It’s just one of those tracks that you just push hard for the manufacturer, but doesn’t have any relevance towards the Chase.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT QUALIFYING HERE? “Yeah, it’s one of the toughest qualifying tracks. Charlotte, Indy…big temperature changes from when we practice to qualifying. We had some hot, sunny conditions today. The track is really slick. You don’t know if you can hold it wide open off of Turn 2 and 4 without breaking loose. If you wreck the car, it’s only going to make your weekend that much longer. You qualify at night for one lap after the sun starts to set after 7 p.m.”
