{"id":2564,"date":"2010-06-24T22:26:33","date_gmt":"2010-06-25T03:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=9076"},"modified":"2010-06-24T22:26:33","modified_gmt":"2010-06-25T03:26:33","slug":"kurt-busch-hoping-to-extend-%e2%80%9cstronghold%e2%80%9d-at-new-hampshire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2010\/06\/kurt-busch-hoping-to-extend-%e2%80%9cstronghold%e2%80%9d-at-new-hampshire\/","title":{"rendered":"KURT BUSCH HOPING TO EXTEND \u201cSTRONGHOLD\u201d AT NEW HAMPSHIRE"},"content":{"rendered":"

KURT BUSCH HOPING TO EXTEND \u201cSTRONGHOLD\u201d AT NEW HAMPSHIRE<\/p>\n

-Miller Lite Dodge Driver Has Been Impressive In Recent Races On Loudon\u2019s Flat One-Mile Layout-<\/strong><\/p>\n

LOUDON, N.H. (June 22, 2010) \u2013 Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch has found somewhat of a competitive stronghold on the flat 1.058-mile New Hampshire Motor Speedway in recent years, recording a win and posting a 4.0 average finish during the last four races there. The 2004 NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion and three-time winner at NHMS is focused on keeping that successful streak going in this weekend\u2019s LENOX Industrial Tools 301 at the \u201cMagic Mile.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have had some really good races at Loudon the last couple of years, but the statistics don\u2019t really tell the whole story of what happened there for our Miller Lite Dodge Team,\u201d said Busch, who has a 14.0 average start and 14.3 average finish in his 18 total starts at NHMS. \u201cWe used good pit strategy and won a rain-shortened race there in (June) 2008 and finished third in the rain-shortened race there last June.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat race last June looked like it was going to come down to a battle between us and the 24 car (Jeff Gordon), but the rain came and the 20 car (Joey Logano) snookered them a win,\u201d said Busch, now sixth in the Sprint Cup point standings after a late-race run-in with Gordon on Sunday at Infineon Raceway left him with a flat tire and relegated him to a 32nd-place finish. \u201cWe\u2019ve had really strong Miller Lite Dodge Chargers there the last two years and we\u2019re hoping to be as strong or even stronger this time around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Busch thoroughly enjoys racing on the one-mile oval and is quick to compare it to the other flat one-mile venue on the circuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think New Hampshire reminds me a little bit of Phoenix,\u201d Busch said of Phoenix International Raceway, where he saw his first big-league race as a fan while growing up in Las Vegas. \u201cI\u2019ve always liked Phoenix and the racing there a lot and have had quite a few miles around that track. The way that you have to slide a car around on a flat track like that requires a loose setup and that\u2019s the way I like to set my cars up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that we\u2019ll really have our work cut out for us this weekend,\u201d said Busch, who now trails points leader Kevin Harvick by 216 points, but has a 243-point \u201cbuffer\u201d over 13th-place Dale Earnhardt Jr. when looking at the current \u201cRace to the Chase\u201d scenario. \u201cThere\u2019s always so much slipping and sliding and getting the forward bite we need is always so critical. Track position is really key and being up front on the restarts is so important.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe track has always been slick on restarts and with double-file restarts; you have to keep in the back of your mind that you seem to always need several laps to get going. It can be horrendous if you\u2019re stuck back in the pack on the restarts. The demands are such that you need your car to be strong on the long runs, but with the late-race restarts, you might need to focus on short runs as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a pretty tight pit road and you can get yourself in trouble in a hurry like we saw there in last fall\u2019s race,\u201d said Busch of his fate during last September\u2019s Sylvania 300 at NHMS. \u201cWith all the varying pit strategies \u2013 two tires, four tires, and no tires \u2013 we did a fuel-only stop in that race. We got our car messed up when another car got into us when we were driving out of our box. That put us in the catch-up mode. We had a solid top-five car, but had to settle for a sixth-place finish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Busch is very much aware of the fact that the return to NHMS for the September race officially kicks off the 10-race Chase that determines which of 12 drivers wins the Sprint Cup title.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe summer stretch is here and we run all these tracks and none of them are in the Chase with the exception of New Hampshire,\u201d said Busch, who did the \u201cLoudon Sweep\u201d in claiming both NHMS wins during his successful run to the 2004 championship, the initial year of the Chase format. \u201cSo yes, New Hampshire is really important in that respect in that we\u2019ll be coming back there for the first race of the Chase. I don\u2019t think that you really pinpoint any of those races as a time when you just completely start focusing in on the points. It just sort of all blends in to where you hope that you\u2019ve built up a cushion when it comes down to two or three (races) to go where you\u2019re comfortable heading into the Chase.\u201d<\/p>\n

Busch and his Steve Paddington-led \u201cBlue Deuce\u201d team will be racing their \u201cPRS-701\u201d Miller Lite \u201cVortex\u201d Dodge this weekend at New Hampshire. The car has been raced only once \u2013 in last October\u2019s battle at Fontana, Calif. Busch started 24th and finished eighth in that race. Busch, Addington and crew tested with the car at the Milwaukee Mile on June 9 in preparation for this weekend\u2019s battle at NHMS.<\/p>\n

This weekend\u2019s New Hampshire Motor Speedway action gets under way on Friday with practice set from 11:30 a.m. till 1:00 p.m. (live on Speed-TV). Qualifying for all 43 starting positions is set for Friday at 3:10 p.m. (live on Speed-TV & PRN Radio). Saturday\u2019s schedule 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KURT BUSCH HOPING TO EXTEND \u201cSTRONGHOLD\u201d AT NEW HAMPSHIRE -Miller Lite Dodge Driver Has Been Impressive In Recent Races On Loudon\u2019s Flat One-Mile Layout- LOUDON, N.H. (June 22, 2010) \u2013 Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch has found somewhat of a competitive stronghold on the flat 1.058-mile New Hampshire Motor Speedway in recent years, recording […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[45,126,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nascar","category-new-england","category-nhms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}