Kurt Busch is currently fifth in points for the Sprint Cup Championship well ahead of last year at this time. (Photo: Geoff Burke/Getty Images for NASCAR)
What Kurt Busch has accomplished thus far this season is a direct result of what his Penske Racing No. 2 team was not able to do in 2008.
Because he did not qualify for the Chase For The Sprint Cup a year ago – missing the 10-race playoff for only the second time since the format debuted in 2004 – Busch and crew chief Pat Tryson decided to use the final 10 races as a series of tests for the 2009 season. And with NASCAR now limiting the amount of testing teams can do, it seems the decision has begun to pay dividends.
Busch, 30, heads to this weekend’s Lifelock 400 at Michigan International Speedway fifth in points, 16 positions ahead of his 2008 status after 14 events.
While his team hasn’t been the most consistent on the track each week, it’s evident that it has been more consistent than a year ago. Busch, the 2004 Cup champion, already has one win in ’09 – at Atlanta – as well as seven top-10 finishes. His is the lone Dodge team in the top 12 in points and the only one with a win thus far this year.
Much of his success to date, he says, is a result of gains made during the end of the 2008 season, as well as the offseason.
“When you realize you can’t make the Chase, it’s a disappointing feeling,” Busch says. “But at the same time, it’s an opportunity to advance work into the next year. Starting last year during the Chase, we might have hurt ourselves a little bit in points, but what’s the difference in 13th to 35th? It’s nothing, really. The perception is that was my worst year since my rookie season. But you have to give up 10 races to work toward advancing yourself for the upcoming season.
“And I think that overall that procedure worked, and we benefited from that right from the get-go once the season began.”
In addition to mechanical advances gained over the winter, the team added another 30 years of experience, Busch says, with the addition of lead engineer Dave Winston and the return of crewman Jeff Thousand. Winston spent several years at Roush Fenway Racing before landing at Red Bull Racing, with driver Brian Vickers, last season. Thousand was an integral part of Rusty Wallace’s crew during Wallace’s tenure with Penske.
Tryson, who has been crew chief for Busch since July 2007, doesn’t deny that the team was self-destructing a year ago. While there’s always room for improvement, Tryson says the organization has made gains, and those gains are finally beginning to show up on the race track.
