NASCAR Rocks

The chase for the Nextel Cup was not quite the ideal that Kurt Busch and his crew chief Pat Tryson must have prayed for.The engine started giving problems early on and would not run on full speed, the afternoon which had previously seemed quite promising quickly turned into a disappointment as even after dropping a lap and regaining it at a free pass, Busch lost it again late in the race finishing 25^th place.

“We had a strong car there in the beginning and then had a motor problem,” Busch said. “A later diagnosis left us with a problem with our carburetor. It left us without the power that we needed.”

The optimistic side is though that the car did not conk off all at once, if that would have happened, then the last place finish would have driven Busch, a strong contender for the win, out of the championship race even before it had started.

Busch needed a caution and could no nothing as he watched the field including the leader Bowyer pass by him.

Lap 149 had debris on the track which finally gave the team the chance it wanted, Busch was issued a free pass which got him back on the leading lap, then the crew was able to open the engine and look for the trouble.

The problem however did not get corrected, even after twenty laps again the problem returned and the crew unsuccessfully tried to counter it, this led to Busch joining the tail end of the leading cars and from that position could not gain ground further on.

The team is anyways still optimistic about their chances for the reasons that Jimmie Johnson had rolled over an easy 39 at Loudon but still went on to win that the title the last season and second because the complete engine failure was avoided which would have been fatal.

“It’s kind of a bummer, but we worked hard to get in this Chase and we’ll still work hard, the last” Busch said. “This one is a big lump, but it didn’t hurt us, so we’ll see what happens.”

Filed under: Racing