Kurt Busch Starting Third In Sunday's New Hampshire Race
June 25, 2010
LOUDON, N. H. (June 25, 2010) – Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch will start Sunday’s LENOX Industrial Tools 301 here at New Hampshire Motor Speedway from the third spot after turning in a lap of 28.841 seconds (132.062 mph) in this afternoon’s qualifying session.
“Qualifying has been good for us this season and that’s certainly the case here this afternoon,” said Busch, who was also third fastest in the practice session leading up to qualifying (with a lap of 28.854 seconds/132.002 mph). “Steve Addington's experience has helped a lot. He gets excited for Fridays and trying to put our Miller Lite Dodge on the pole. The car stuck great. The track conditions were warmer and I knew that I couldn't overdrive the corners anymore than we did in practice.
“We made some good adjustments and it paid off,” Busch said of his seventh top-five start of the 2010 season in the first 17 races. “It's really important to qualify well here and start up front, especially knowing how important this race is in the fall. It just seems like all the adjustments that we made to the car today gave it speed. We've got great data to go into tomorrow's practice sessions and tweak some things to make it fast on the long runs as well as restarts which are critical here at Loudon."
Juan Pablo Montoya, who was also fastest in practice (with alp of 28.761 seconds/132.429 mph) claimed the Coors Light Pole Position here this afternoon with his fast lap of 28.781 seconds (132.337 mph). Kasey Kahne utilized his new-found Ford power to take the outside-front-row starting spot with his lap of 28.820 seconds (132.158 mph). Mark Martin (28.855 seconds/131.998 mph) qualified fourth, with Ryan Newman (28.862 seconds/131.966 mph) fifth.
Today proved to be a strong day of qualifying for the Penske Racing Teams as Sam Hornish Jr. earned the eighth starting spot (with a lap of 28.935 seconds/131.633 mph) and Brad Keselowski turned in the 14th-fastest lap (29.028 seconds/131.211 mph).
Saturday’s schedule here at NHMS calls for practice from 9:00 a.m. till 9:50 a.m. (live on Speed-TV) and from 11:45 a.m. till 12:45 p.m. (live on Speed-TV). Sunday’s LENOX Industrial Tools 301 (301 laps, 318.46 miles) is scheduled to get the green flag at approximately 1:00 p.m. EDT. Race No. 17 of 36 points-paying events on the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule will feature live coverage by TNT-TV and PRN Radio.
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HIGHLIGHTS FROM TOP-12 PRESS CONFERENCE (Courtesy Dodge MotorsportsPR):
THIS YEAR WE’VE SEEN MORE AGGRESSION ON THE RACE TRACK. DO YOU FEEL (DRIVERS HAVE) MORE PERMISSION TO LEAN ON A CAR FROM TIME TO TIME? “I wouldn’t say that it’s changed all that much. NASCAR use to be looking over your shoulder when you had a run-in with somebody or you took it over the line to far and they would step in. Now it seems like you can turn a guy over on his lid and get three-week probation. It’s definitely a different game. When I first came in 10 years ago, I ran into a couple of guys at Rockingham and (NASCAR) threatened to park me because I was accidentally bumping into guys. It’s definitely a different game.”
DO YOU PUT MORE EMPHASIS ON THIS RACE BECAUSE IT’S IN THE CHASE LATER IN THE YEAR? “I think that each of the tracks that you see for the first time of the year that are in the Chase, it’s not like you do anything terribly different, but you hopefully get into more detail. With all the changes that you make, I know that we’re always recording temperature, overcast conditions and different things for engine tuning. Like today, Steve (Addington) wanted to make a second mock qualifying run, normally we only do two. We did an extra just to make sure that we had one extra minor detail ironed out so that when we come back here in September, we’ve got all of our home work done.”
IS THERE MORE AGGRESSION ON THE RACE TRACK THIS YEAR? “There’s more that’s going on. It’s just that there’s not a penalty that you’d know was coming from NASCAR. Now, it’s more policed by the drivers. Ten years ago, if you got into somebody, you’d be on probation or (NASCAR) would park you for the rest of the race. We saw what happened at Atlanta earlier this year and what had happened after that.”
ARE YOU IN LINE TO GET BACK AT JEFF GORDON? “I would say that I’m in the line, but I’m not at the top of the list. There are a lot of guys in front of me that want to go talk to Jeff “Bulldozer” Gordon.”
DOES IT GET TO A POINT THAT IT’S STARTING TO GET OUT OF HAND? “No. We’re just coming off of one of those rough and tumble weeks of a road course where it’s really easy to get into people. Martinsville…we’ll go there and I’m sure we’ll have discussions right after that race. We go to Daytona next week, a lot of things happen at the restrictor-plate races these days.”
WHY ARE WE NOT SEEING AS MANY GUYS WIN RACES? “You have different waves of teams that get hot; some teams cool off. Right now, the Gibbs guys have jumped to the front, showing their strength. Then there’s a bunch of guys knocking on the door that are right there. It just might be a couple more races and then we’ll have those 10 winners before we know it. It’s really hard to say what’s different or why.”
